DIVERSITY, DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF LICHEN IN SIMILIPAL BIOSPHERE RESERVE, ODISHA

• Published in: Journal of experimental biology and agricultural sciences Vol. 9; no. 6; pp. 781 - 790
• Main Authors: Pradhan, Srimay, Upreti, Dalip Kumar, Satapathy, Kunja Bihari
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 30.12.2021
• ISSN: 2320-8694; 2320-8694
• DOI: 10.18006/2021.9(6).781.790

Lichens are organized symbionts that have their importance due to a potential indicator of the forest ecosystem. The lichen diversity of Odisha is not well explored as compared to the other phytogeographical region of India. Though the earlier study reported the occurrence of 252 lichen species from different parts of the state, it was limited to the northeast part of the Similipal Biosphere Reserve (SBR). The objective of the present study was to survey some unexplored areas of SBR, which revealed the occurrence of 84 species of lichens belonging to 38 families and 18 genera. Most of the lichens were found growing as phorophytes on the matured bark of the trees. The western part of the SBR is rich in lichen diversity as compared to the eastern part. Species frequency was found to be highest in the southwest part of the SBR, while the density and abundance were more or less similar within all the study sites. The correlation between frequency and density was found to be significant and insignificant between frequency and abundance.