Diversity and distribution of lichens in relation to altitude within a protected biodiversity hot spot, north-east India

Abstract

A study of the diversity and distribution of lichens at 10 sites within the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, India, revealed 177 species, belonging to 71 genera and 35 families. The Sanctuary exhibited almost all the habit and habitat groups of lichens within its climatically heterogenous and altitudinally (400-2700 m) varied landscape. Among the different habitat groups, obligately corticolous lichens were dominant (133 species), followed by facultatively corticolous lichens(occurring on both rock and bark; 25 species), saxicolous lichens (17 species) and terricolous lichens (2 species). The corticolous habitat group was dominated by crustose species while saxicolous and terricolous groups were made up of mostly fruticose species. A substantial number of species (77) occurred at single sites only, and each of the 10 sites supported a distinct lichen assemblage. Altitude and humidity were the putative key factors controlling the diversity and distribution of lichens within the Sanctuary. The mid altitude range 1400-1600 m had the greatest lichen diversity, which showed a unimodal pattern in relation to altitude.