Practical applications Lichens
Many of the secondary products formed by lichens are unpalatable and may serve as defensive compounds against herbivores as well as decomposers (Rundel 1978;Chapter14). As a consequence, it is not surprising that these secondary products are frequently used by the pharmaceutical industry as anti-bacterial and antiviral compounds. In addition, lichens have long been used as a source of natural dyes and in the making of perfumes. In both cases the secondary products provide the chemical basis for these applications (Chapter7).
The differential sensitivity of lichens to air pollution has been recognized for over a century and a half, and the application of lichenological studies to biomonitoring of air pollution is now well developed (Chapter15). For example, patterns in lichen communities may be correlated with sulfur dioxide levels in the atmosphere (Hawksworth and Rose 1970). In recent years sulfur dioxide levels have been reduced, either by improved controls on emissions or by more efficient dispersion strategies, and, as a consequence, lichens are now reinvad-ing areas from which they had previously disappeared (Rose and Hawksworth 1981; Bateset al.1990). However, the recolonization is incomplete because other factors, such as high nitrate deposition, modify lichen community composition as well. Finally, lichens are efficient accumulators of metals and persistent organic pollutants and are frequently used as surrogate receptors for document-ing deposition of these pollutants (Chapter12)
Nash, Thomas H.,2008,Lichen Biology Second Edition,Cambridge : Cambridge University Press
Buy this book : http://www.cambridge.org/9780521871624
0 Comments
