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Terricolous Lichens in Himalayas: Patterns of Species Richness Along Elevation Gradient

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Terricolous Lichens in India

Abstract

Despite the great importance of terricolous lichens very few efforts have been done towards the elevational richness pattern and their ecology from the Himalayas. In present study elevational ranges of terricolous lichen richness were interpolated at every 100 m altitudinal band. They were found distributed from 100 to 6,000 m. A total of 212 terricolous lichen species under 54 genera and 24 families were found recorded in India and Nepal. These terricolous lichen species showed a highly significant unimodal elevational declining pattern with dominant peak at 2,400 m. This unimodal richness pattern was also followed by their dominant families but differed in elevation of peak richness. The zones of dominance and diversity richness of terricolous lichen species were discussed with reference to natural and anthropogenic factors specific to Himalayan habitats.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The data takes into account representative terricolous specimens lodged in CSIR-NBRI, lichenological herbarium-LWG.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University, Box 15142, KPC 785, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Chitra Bahadur Baniya

  2. Lichenology Laboratory, Plant Diversity, Systematics and Herbarium Division, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Rana Pratap Marg, 226001, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Himanshu Rai & Dalip Kumar Upreti

Authors
  1. Chitra Bahadur Baniya
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  2. Himanshu Rai
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  3. Dalip Kumar Upreti
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Correspondence to Chitra Bahadur Baniya .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Botanical Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Himanshu Rai

  2. National Botanical Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Dalip K. Upreti

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Baniya, C., Rai, H., Upreti, D. (2014). Terricolous Lichens in Himalayas: Patterns of Species Richness Along Elevation Gradient. In: Rai, H., Upreti, D. (eds) Terricolous Lichens in India. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8736-4_3

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