lichen study project

Tree found at the end of the brick alley between the library and Ellis Hall.

                         Tree found at the end of the brick alley between the library and Ellis Hall. About 35 steps from the road and about 6-7 steps from the alley. Lichen was mainly on the side facing the road.

              Grading scale: 2

 Grading scale: 1

 Grading scale: 0

Grading scale: 1

Standard Deviation: -0.32
GPS location: LAT: 39.325
                        LON: -82.099

  Lichen are slow growing plants that form low crust, or leaf, like extensions on rocks, walls, and some trees with symbiotic relations. Symbiosis is an interaction between different organisms living in close physical association where one or both organisms benefit or there is no affect. Both of theses together form lichen symbiosis, which is where the lichen is benefiting from, in this case, the tree by the tree giving the lichen a place to grow and the tree is benefiting by absorbing water that the lichen brings in through its algae. This type of symbiosis is called mutualism. Lichen tends to grow on the side of the tree that does not get sunlight. The relationship between lichen and air quality depends on how clean or polluted air is in the area of the tree being researched. If there is a high visibility of lichen on a tree then the air quality in the surrounding area is clean. Lichen need clean air to be able to grow. If there is a low presence of lichen on a given tree, such as the one I personally researched, then there is polluted air in the surrounding areas. This could also be determined by how close or far the tree is from the road due to the emissions from passing vehicles. Beatrix Potter, the author of Petter Rabbit, contributed to the Lichen Study. Beatrix loved nature and found painting fungi to be fascinating. She came up with a few theories through her work of being an author and illustrator. She believed that there was a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and its photosynthetic partner algae. As further studies were put into place based solely on her beliefs, it was proven to be true with the help of Roy Watling, who discovered her work 15 years ago while sorting through Potter's work and said that no one knew about her work with spores until her discovered it. Candellaria Sp. Yellow is a type of yellow lichen that grow along the leafy grey Physica sp.. These types of lichen are only able to grow under extreme temperature conditions. They are capable of growing in the extreme heat of the desert and the extremely cold temperatures of the antarctic. Along with the extreme temperatures, these lichen are able to photosynthesize under a foot of snow! There are many different types of lichen that are capable of living in various conditions all over the world. The methodology of the lichen tree process and selection was the only one that made the most sense. This process was easy to conduct and simple to interpret for the Graduate Students. The study was also precise enough to detect differences among SO2 and NO2 in a single urban area of Athens on Ohio University's campus. This test was also specific enough to withstand small variations and intricate details by different public areas with different backgrounds. The study was incredibly cost effective and easy to conduct by undergraduate students such as myself. Because of my class and our ability to conduct this study, the data we collected along with the help of the graduate students can be used year after year without having to be redone. The whole lichen study is very well-rounded and easy to navigate (lichen training manual). It was very important to select a tree that represented the standards of the manual very well. The manual suggested that both Ash and Maple trees be tested and the relationship between the lichen on trees should be recorded by using a measuring device that counted the amount of lichen in a given area on the every side of the tree ( north, south, east, and west). Testing the amount of lichen on each side of the tree is important to tell which side is more exposed to sunlight and which side is more exposed to pollution. The presence of Nitrogen Dioxide and Sulfur Dioxide would mean that there would be less lichen on the tree because that area's air quality is probably polluted. Selecting the area of the tree was important because if the tree is too close to a roadway, the data may be skewed because pollution will be coming from passing vehicles but may not mean that the overall air quality is bad. The goal is to select a tree in a pollution hotspot of a city or town. In our case, we were assigned one of 4 areas around Athens that were more likely to have polluted air. Once the study is ready to be conducted, the only materials that are required for use are wired quadrants (for counting the amount of lichen), a meter stick to measure exactly one meter off of the ground (this is important because 1 meter gives enough distance from the ground where there may be factors that skew the results of the test), and recording equipment to record all of the data found (this includes a GPS, something to write with, and a calculator). After the data has been collected it will be used to measure the amount of air pollution in the areas we tested and will also be used for a general assumption of air pollution in Athens.