Nathan Chrismas

Our new short comm introducing Ochrolechia frigida as a system for studying lichen symbiont dynamics is online now in The Lichenologist @lichenologist.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The latest issue of the #Lichenologist has been published today! Enjoy the latest lichen research, including #OpenAccess articles, online here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Have been a bit quiet on here recently (social media/life overload perhaps?), but licheneering continues. Here's another example of the mega-rare-in-Scotland Catolechia wahlenbergii spotted on a glorious day scrambling Castle Ridge on Ben Nevis a cpuple of weeks back.

Very proud to have these hills as part of my extended office. One of the very best places in the country. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On a climbing trip in Sweden and pretty psyched to see this abundant Umbilicaria crustulosa, a lichen with a super limited distribution in the UK but all over the granite cliffs here where there's a bit of drainage

I'm out west this week surveying some patches of woodland on the Balmacara estate outwith the well known Coille Mhor SSSI. There's some amazing lichens about, like these lovely Pseudocyphellaria citrina and P. norvegica. #lichenGBI

Had a good day at Glasdrum NNR filling a few gaps in my knowledge of Scottish rainforest lichens with the help of Oliver Moore. This was the find of the day, the nationally rare jelly Leptogium hibernicum. #lichenGBI @plantlifeuk.bsky.social

Found a lichen lifer today, Catolechia wahlenbergii, one of our rarest arctic-alpines. In Glen Nevis, VC97. Last official record from the area in an adjacent monad was 2003. What a beauty! #lichenGBI

I've been out on my first fieldwork with NTS this week looking at some of their woodland sites in Perthshire. Some nice old growth indicators tucked in there, including Lopadium disciforme (black fruits) and Mycobilimbia sphaeroides (brown fruits). Also Oliver Moore.

😍 Great to see some lichen love from April Windle of the @britishlichensociety.org.uk, plus our own Bill Bealey explaining how our LicheN app is used for measuring sensitivity to nitrogen pollution Featured on BBC News ⤵️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🧪

Another one from the Tafraout granite. This looks superficially like some images of Acarospora strigata (I've never seen this in person so just having a stab...)

Ecography - Wiley Online Library nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Want to work on biodiversity in the Alps? ⛰️ We are offering several internship positions for the upcoming spring and summer in collaboration with the Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol 🕷️🦋🦇🐜🌼🦗🪱 biodiversity.eurac.edu/interns-want...

PhD Position in Taxonomic and Molecular Diversity of Epiphytic Lichens, Bryophytes & Microorganisms at Future Forests, University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg’s Excellence Cluster Future Forests invites applications for a PhD position researching the taxonomic and molecular diversity of…

This paper raises the possibility that lichens had evolved by the late Ordovician, contemporary with earliest vascular plants 🧪⚒️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Great article about fieldwork in Iceland this summer (in Icelandic but Google Translate does a decent job). I was invited to join by lichenologist Starri Heiðmarsson who I met thanks to the @ukarcticoffice.bsky.social UK-Iceland Arctic Science Partnership Scheme heimildin.is/grein/25295/...

A while ago I did a little experiment in getting a LLM to write some code to draw pictures of lichens. It was very apparent that it had no idea what it was doing. Looks like the situation hasn't gotten any better.

Remote sensing of lichens with drones for detecting dinosaur bones: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Based on morphology and molecular data, sixteen new species are described as part of a study on the taxonomy of Protoblastenia in Finland. 🔗 doi.org/10.3897/myco...

#Fire avoidance & long-term population decline in the endangered Florida ground #lichen #Cladonia perforata within a pyrogenic habitat New #AJB research by @sterlingherron.bsky.social, Katherine Charton, Sarah Haller Crate, Stacy Smith, et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience

UTTERLY SURREAL LOW ANGLE GLACIER SLIDE!! 😮😱 On Saturday at 11:00 am, a 2 km-long, 25 m-high, and 150-200 m in width section detached off the Ismoil Somoni Glacier (Tajikistan) and slid down the gorge! 🧊🌊 asiaplustj.info/en/node/354309 📽️ via @volcaholic1

There are 110 other posts in the vicinity and I took a closer look at about 40 of them. The original one I noticed still happened to be the best in my opinion, in terms of "terrain" and diversity.

In this paper, we show that photobiont diversity increases as lichens age. Interestingly, as the thallus grows, autosporine algae become more prevalent at the expense of zoosporine algae, likely because the latter play a key role in lichen establishment. 1url.cz/@Proto

Stereocaulon condensatum. This is a thing frequently associated with mine spoil so really nice to see it in a more natural setting - exposed soil flushed by mineral rich rock at ~800m VC96 #lichenGBI

Some very fine looking Trapeliopsis pseudogranulosa VC106 #LichenGBI

PhD opportunity with me at University of Edinburgh linked with Forest Research, funded by E5 DTP. On the microbial mechanisms of soil carbon cycling in tree-planted upland soils. Apply before 14th Dec. Please share with your network. Pic: one of our Scottish sites. e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

Part of: Exploring the Hidden Fungal Diversity: Biodiversity, Taxonomy, and Phylogeny of Saprobic Fungi doi.org/10.3897/myco...

Nice new study from Veronika Kantnerova and @skaloud.bsky.social - lichen photobionts are not fixed from the 'birth' of a thallus and increase in diversity as a lichen ages academic.oup.com/femsec/artic...

BLS will welcome applications from members for travel grants to attend IAL10 next summer. The full details of the application process and closing date for applications are on the website. britishlichensociety.org.uk/the-society/....