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McCune, B. 2016: [Abstract:] Three powerful tool sets in lichen ecology: Critical issues and opportunities. - In: : IAL8 Abstracts. . Helsinki, Finland pp. 13. [RLL List # 249 / Rec.# 39254]
Abstract: I critically examine three powerful tool sets in lichen ecology that have fostered substantial contributions and are likely to receive heavy or increasing use in the coming years. These tool sets include species distribution (or habitat) modeling, field transplant experiments, and analysis of ecological traits. For each of these tool sets I discuss the ecological questions that they address, some example contributions, and critical issues with their application. Species distribution modeling is an important tool set for addressing climate change effects on lichens, but the methods can be mathematically opaque, conceptually naive, divorced from the species biology, and give results with inadequate characterization of prediction error and response surfaces. Field-based transplant experiments have been extremely productive in lichen ecology, but we have barely begun to appreciate the temporal stability or instability of the results, as revealed by multi-year studies showing large fluctuations in growth rates from year to year. Analysis of ecological traits of lichens is an increasingly popular effort to link performance of different kinds of lichens under various environments and disturbance regimes in a way that transcends particular species on particular continents. While methods for analyzing ecological trait data have proliferated, including advances that allow non-linear responses to environment, definition and widespread measurement of non-trivial quantitative traits for a large number of species has been virtually stalled at the starting line.
URL: http://ial8.luomus.fi/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IAL8_abstracts3007.pdf
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