Aspects of global change and the biodiversity along an altitudinal transect in continental Antarctica

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Lichens and bryophytes form the dominant vegetation at terrestrial sites across the Antarctic. Detailed research has been done at terrestrial coastal sites of the maritime Antarctic. While there is a broad knowledge on well developed communhies of lichens and bryophytes considering physiology and vegetation ecology of these coastal sites the knowledge of diversity, ecology and physiology is scarce across continental sites. The rare investigations on continental Antarctica focused on coastal sites (on more or less sea level) where lichen colonisation occurred. The question arises whether lichen colonisation is restricted to lower altitudes at continental sites or will appear also up to higher elevations. The hypothesis ofthe project is that lichens are able to colonise higher altitudes as long as micro niches with suitable environmental parameters are available. Therefore, the proposed project focuses on the characterisation of microclimate and atmospheric parameters to be able to describe environmental parameters which may influence and effect lichen species at respective habitats. In addition, chlorophyll a fluorescence will be calculated to get indications on response of photosynthesisactivity. The project also emphasises on the diversity of lichen species along an altitudinal transect up to 3000m a.s.l. and the interactions between and among species considering the colonisation process. The aim ofthe project is to correlate the data achieved with environmental change at the continental Antarctic.