The Sunburst Lichen Xanthoria parietina can be prolific in air has high levels of ammonia or NOx. In Manchester UK it is closely associated with the Greater Manchester Air Quality Management Area AQMA for NOx, and can be in great abundant on tree trunks and fallen twiglets. In Manchester colonies of this prominent lichen can sometimes be seen on Google Earth in street view. The images show 4 examples, 2 in Mosley Rd in Fallowfield, 1 in Piccadilly Gardens next to an electric tram, and 1 in the middle of the dual carraigeway in Kingsway in Burnage.
Has anyone else seen colonies of the NOx junky Sunburst Lichen on Google Earth? Any comments, ideas welcome! Robin
Dear Ken, Thanks for your answer.
What I am seeking are bioindicators of particular species that are reasonably consistent in indicating a particular level of pollution.
Homo sapiens are hopelessly unreliable bioindicators are they exhibit incredible diversity in the level and type of pollution that they cause. For this precise reason, I am seeking reliable bioindicators from species other than Homo sapiens, in order to indicate pollution types and levels attributable to activities past and present of Homo sapiens.
Ken - we are probably on the same page in seeking species that serve as meaningful bioindicators of particular impacts of myriads of human activities.For instance, the impact of air pollution in industrial cities being mapped by a) lichen species as bioindicators of the intensity and type of air pollution, including lichen deserts and b) melanic forms of many species of invertebrates such as the Peppered Moth attributable to black carbon pollution. You can of course also use humans as indicators of severity of air pollution in terms of attributable deaths and attributable morbidity. In Mongolia I have used prevalence of dental fluorosis as an indicator of leaching of fluorite from the upper few metres of soil due to presence of extreme Ca ion depletion and resultant servere Na ion alkalinity that leaches fluorspar veins. There are plenty more examples, but we also need bioindicators of flora and fauna, in addition to noting direct impacts by humans and on humans. Bioindicators also help understand changes in ecosystems due to direct or indirect activity, as well as long-term changes not necessarily due to human activity. Rolling back the clock to pre-history, as a palaeontologist and stratigrapher I am familiar with the importance of the fossil record and the evidence of palaeobioindicators of eustatic and isostatic sea level changes, climate changes, continental drift, volcanic impacts on ecosystems (e.g. tonstein horizons), paleoequators and obliquity (e.g. growth rings in corals), mass extinctions.... ....and so the list continues.
Paleobioindicators also suggest that we are, at least in high latitudes, overdue for another ice age, as the paleoindicators (marine foraminifera, interglacial forests etc) show that we have had numerous ice ages including several in human history.
In summary, we need bioindicators that indicate natural and anthropological changes. Dodos are paleobioindicators of human impacts of the past, but reveal little about current impacts other than flightless birds require islands or deserts to survive against predators human or otherwise, for instance ostrich eggs are common in he Gobi desert but the ostrichs are gone, and moas are no more in New Zealand.