New species and new records of buellioid lichens (Physciaceae, Ascomycota) from New Zealand

Amandinea rangitatensis Elix & H.Mayrhofer, Buellia haywardii Elix, A.Knight & H.Mayrhofer, B. maungatuensis Elix & H.Mayrhofer, B. papanui Elix & H.Mayrhofer, and Tetramelas allisoniae Elix, H.Mayrhofer & Glenny are described as new to science. Rinodinella fertilis var. hypostictica (Elix) Elix is recorded for the first time from New Zealand. Tetramelas allisoniae also occurs in Tasmania

High lichen species richness in Polylepis australis forest: New records from South America and Argentina

The Polylepis australis forests in Central Argentina support a great biodiversity in a relative small area. As a result of this study focusing on the diversity and ecology of the lichen communities of these forests, we present five new species for South America: Rinodina ficta, R. malcolmii, R. obscura, Usnea glabrata, Tetramelas triphragmioides and eight taxa new for Argentina: Calicium abietinum, Erioderma leylandii subsp. leylandii, Leptogium microstictum, Phaeophyscia endococcinodes, Rinodina dolichospora, R. intermedia, Usnea cirrosa and U. flavocardia. Unidentified Usnea species, similar to U. silesiaca, were also characterized and discussed.Fil: Rodriguez, Juan Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Díaz Dominguez, Raúl Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Mayrhofer, Helmut. University of Graz; AustriaFil: Passo, Alfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Renison, Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas; Argentin

Could Hair-Lichens of High-Elevation Forests Help Detect the Impact of Global Change in the Alps?

Climate change and the anthropic emission of pollutants are likely to have an accelerated impact in high-elevation mountain areas. This phenomenon could have negative consequences on alpine habitats and for species of conservation in relative proximity to dense human populations. This premise implies that the crucial task is in the early detection of warning signals of ecological changes. In alpine landscapes, high-elevation forests provide a unique environment for taking full advantage of epiphytic lichens as sensitive indicators of climate change and air pollution. This literature review is intended to provide a starting point for developing practical biomonitoring tools that elucidate the potential of hair-lichens, associated with high-elevation forests, as ecological indicators of global change in the European Alps. We found support for the practical use of hair-lichens to detect the impact of climate change and nitrogen pollution in high-elevation forest habitats. The use of these organisms as ecological indicators presents an opportunity to expand monitoring activities and develop predictive tools that support decisions on how to mitigate the effects of global change in the Alps

Towards a checklist of the lichens of the Alps

The Alps are one of the largest continuous natural areas in Europe, stretching approximately 1,200 kilometres across eight countries, and including fourteen national parks. The Alpine Convention emphasizes the importance of this area and encourages transnational research and conservation projects. Lichens as unique models of fungal symbioses with macroscopically recognizable, light-exposed individuals are important colonizers of rock, soil and plant material, and they are a dominant symbiotic life form of higher altitudes in the Alps. National checklists or catalogues exist for Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland. The compilation of a catalogue of the lichenized fungi of the Alps is a long overdue task and will enable us to compare, for instance, the genera or species diversity of the Alps with those of other mountain systems of the world. We have summarized the abundant but scattered baseline information on lichen biodiversity in the Alps, which will lead to a transnational inventory of all lichen taxa (c. 3,000), including data on their horizontal and vertical distribution and their ecology. This information will be of use for experts, decision-makers, and citizen scientists

Lichenized fungi of the chestnut grove in Livari (Rumija, Montenegro)

Sixty taxa (59 species and 1 variety) of lichenized fungi are reported from a chestnut grove in Livari. The majority of them (55 species and 1 variety) occurred on Castanea sativa. The recently described Xylographa soralifera is new to the Balkan Peninsula.The lichenicolous fungus Monodictys epilepraria growing on Lepraria rigidula is new to Montenegro. The lichen mycota is compared with similar localities in Italy and Switzerland.The species composition in Livari is most similar to the Montieri site in Tuscany

The evolution of fungal substrate specificity in a widespread group of crustose lichens

Lichens exhibit varying degrees of specialization with regard to the surfaces they colonize, ranging from substrate generalists to strict substrate specialists. Though long recognized, the causes and consequences of substrate specialization are poorly known. Using a phylogeny of a 150-200 Mya clade of lichen fungi, we asked whether substrate niche is phylogenetically conserved, which substrates are ancestral, whether specialists arise from generalists or vice versa and how specialization affects speciation/extinction processes. We found strong phylogenetic signal for niche conservatism. Specialists evolved into generalists and back again, but transitions from generalism to specialism were more common than the reverse. Our models suggest that for this group of fungi, 'escape' from specialization for soil, rock and bark occurred, but specialization for wood foreclosed evolution away from that substrate type. In parallel, speciation models showed positive diversification rates for soil and rock dwellers but not other specialists. Patterns in the studied group suggest that fungal substrate specificity is a key determinant of evolutionary trajectory for the entire lichen symbiosis

Influence of alloying elements on the mechanical properties, especially fracture toughness, of the WB2-z base system

Transition metal diborides are an emerging class of thin film materials with promising properties ranging from ultra-low compressibility, high thermal stability, super hardness to superconductivity. These properties allow an application as protective coating in harsh environments. Our recent ab initio calculations suggest an attractive combination of both, high hardness and relatively high fracture toughness, for WB2. This is enabled by a stabilization of the α-structure (space group 191, AlB2-prototype, P6/mmm) over the intrinsic more stable ω-structure due to omnipresent point defects in physical vapor deposited coatings (i.e. boron and metal vacancies) [1]. However, those point defects in turn lower the thermal stability as the are affected by recovery events, leading to phase transformation into the ω-type. Further calculations point towards a stabilization of the α-type with the addition of Ta (which diboride is stabilized in the α-structure without the need of vacancies) at—compared to other transition metals investigated—low cost on ductility. Within this study we deposited various W1-xMxB2-z solid solution coatings with different alloying element contents and examined them for mechanical properties and thermal stability. It was found for M=Ta that the hardness increases ~4 GPa (from 40.8±1.5 to 45.0±2.0 GPa) together with an improvement of the thermal stability (a change of the phase transformation temperature from ~800-1000 °C to over 1400 °C was observed) [2,3]. Besides these characteristics, in various applications a certain amount of damage tolerance (crack initiation and propagation) is required to prevent premature failure. To assess this behavior, we determined the fracture toughness of these coatings by performing micromechanical experiments by means of single cantilever bending tests within the framework of specifications given by Matoy et al. and Brinckmann et al. [4–6]. At the same time of the increase in hardness and thermal stability, we observe a decrease (in agreement with our DFT calculations) in fracture toughness (from 3.7±0.3 MPaÖm for to 3.0±0.2 MPaÖm) with the addition of tantalum up to a maximum content of 26 at% on the metal sublattice. [1] V. Moraes, H. Riedl, C. Fuger, P. Polcik, H. Bolvardi, D. Holec, P.H. Mayrhofer, Sci. Rep. (2018). [2] V. Moraes, C. Fuger, V. Paneta, D. Primetzhofer, P. Polcik, H. Bolvardi, M. Arndt, H. Riedl, P.H. Mayrhofer, Scr. Mater. 155 (2018) 5–10. [3] C. Fuger, V. Moraes, R. Hahn, H. Bolvardi, P. Polcik, H. Riedl, P.H. Mayrhofer, MRS Commun. (2019) 1–6. [4] K. Matoy, H. Schönherr, T. Detzel, T. Schöberl, R. Pippan, C. Motz, G. Dehm, Thin Solid Films 518 (2009) 247–256. [5] S. Brinckmann, C. Kirchlechner, G. Dehm, Scr. Mater. 127 (2017) 76–78. [6] S. Brinckmann, K. Matoy, C. Kirchlechner, G. Dehm, Acta Mater. 136 (2017) 281–287

Refining the picture: new records to the lichen biota of Italy

Based on the analysis of both historical and recent collections, this paper reports an annotated list of taxa which are new to the lichen biota of Italy or of its administrative regions. Specimens were identified using a dissecting and a compound microscope; routine chemical spot tests and standardized thin-layer chromatography (TLC or HPTLC). The list includes 225 records of 153 taxa. Twenty taxa are new to Italy, the others are new to one or more administrative regions, with 15 second records and 5 third records for Italy. Some of the species belong to recently-described taxa, others are poorly known, sterile or ephemeral lichens which were largely overlooked in Italy. Several species are actually rare, either because of the rarity of their habitats (e.g. old-growth forests), or because in Italy they are at the margins of their bioclimatic distribution. The picture of the lichen biota of Italy has now new pixels, but its grain is still coarse. Further analysis of historical collections, increased efforts in the exploration of some areas, and the taxonomic revision of critical groups are still necessary to provide more complete distributional data for new biogeographic hypotheses, taxonomic and ecological research, and biodiversity conservation

Fracture properties of CrN hard coatings: Influence of the microstructure, alloying elements, and coating architecture

Transition metal nitrides are well known and applied as protective coating materials based on their unique refractory characteristics, such as high hardness or Young’s modulus. However, for long-term applications, the fracture toughness KIC is an essential factor as the integrity of the coating-substrate interface is impaired by cracking and subsequent environmental attacks. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

First supplement to the lichen checklist of South Africa

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