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

地衣和苔藓植物是南极陆地上的主要植被。在南极海洋的陆地沿岸地点进行了详细的研究。考虑到这些沿海地点的生理和植被生态，人们对发育良好的地衣和苔藓植物群落有广泛的了解，但对大陆地点的多样性、生态学和生理学的了解却很少。对南极洲大陆的罕见调查集中在地衣殖民化发生的沿海地区（或多或少在海平面上）。问题来了，地衣的殖民化是否局限于大陆地区的低海拔地区，还是也会出现在高海拔地区。该项目的假设是，只要有适合环境参数的微生态位，地衣就能在更高的海拔地区定居。因此，建议的项目侧重于描述小气候和大气参数的特征，以便能够描述可能影响和影响地衣物种在各自栖息地的环境参数。此外，还将计算叶绿素a荧光，以获得光合作用活性响应的指示。该项目还强调沿海拔高达3000米的垂直样带的地衣物种多样性，以及考虑到定殖过程的物种之间的相互作用。该项目的目的是将获得的数据与南极大陆的环境变化联系起来。

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.