(reddish + blue), Nostoc sp. (brown); i Psora decipiens, at all four sites, boreal to mediterranean; j-l biological soil crust at Tabernas, Spain with Psora decipiens (pink) and Fulgensia bracteata (yellow); k Heppia despreauxii, xeric GW786034 species (scale bar unit = 1 mm); l Acarospora nodulosa, lichenicolous on Diploschistes species, semi-arid to arid regions of Asia, North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia The lichen photobiont green algal diversity is unexpectedly high with 12 well supported clades for Trebouxia

spp. and 5 clades for Asterochloris spp. Most Selleck SHP099 of the species are quite cosmopolitan, but nevertheless 5 clades are more specific and cluster according to the climatic conditions at the sampling sites (Ruprecht et al. 2014). Lichen diversity The total number of lichens

found for all four sites was 144 species, with the Hochtor site being the richest with 62 species (Fig. 6g–i; Table 1), followed by the Tabernas site (Fig. 6j–l; Table 1) and Öland (Fig. 6a–c; Table 1). The Gössenheim site had the lowest lichen diversity with only 25 species (Fig. 6d–f; Table 1). The highest percentage (28 %) of cyanobacterial lichens was found at the Gössenheim-site and lowest at the Hochtor-site (Table 1). Peer et al. Ro-3306 in vitro (2010) listed 49 lichen species for the whole Hochtor area. Preliminary results from multi-gene Flavopiridol (Alvocidib) phylogenies indicate that a number of genetically and morphologically distinct taxa had previously been overlooked at several SCIN sites, and several species new to science have been found in the study. Sequences usable as DNA barcodes are produced for all new taxa and for a number of additional species. Table 1 Number of lichen species at all sites   Öland/S Gössenheim/G Hochtor/A Tabernas/E Total all sites All lichens 52 25 62 55 144 Chlorolichens 43 18 51 41 114 Cyanolichens

9 (17 %) 7 (28 %) 10 (16 %) 14 (25 %) 30 (21 %) Highest numbers in bold The Öland and the Gössenheim sites had the highest number of shared species, while the Hochtor and the Tabernas sites seem to be disparate with only 4 similar species (Table 2). The lichen Psora decipiens was the only species found at all four sites. Lichen species that were found at three of the four sites were T. sedifolia (not at Hochtor), Cetraria islandica (not at Tabernas), Diploschistes muscorum (not at Tabernas), Collema tenax (not at Hochtor), and Peltigera rufescens (not found at Tabernas; Tables 1 and 2). Table 2 Number of lichen species shared between sites   Hochtor/A Öland/S Gössenheim/G Tabernas/E 4/3.