Page 257 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

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PHYLUM ASCOMYCOTA PHYLUM ASCOMYCOTA
Sea Ivory Yellow Splash Lichen

Ramalina siliquosa Xanthoria parietina
LENGTH (BRANCHES) WIDTH
1–4 in (2–10 cm) Up to 4 in (10 cm)
HABITAT HABITAT
Hard siliceous rocks Splash zone; favors
above the splash zone surfaces high in
nitrogenous compounds
DISTRIBUTION Northeast and southwest Atlantic, DISTRIBUTION Temperate Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico,
coasts of Japan and New Zealand Indian and Pacific oceans

Nutrient-poor siliceous rocks are the On most rocky shores, different
favorite habitat of gray lichens, such as species of lichen have a marked
sea ivory. This lichen is usually vertical territory related to their
gray-green in color, with a brittle, tolerance of salt exposure. The
bushlike (fruticose) structure and yellow splash lichen is found
disk-shaped fruiting bodies, called in the splash zone and forms
apothecia, at its branch tips. Sea ivory a bright orange band across the
cannot withstand being trampled or shore, with gray lichens above
extensively grazed, and so it grows it and black lichens below. It has
best on vertical rock faces, to which a leaflike (foliose) form, with
it sticks by a single basal attachment. slow-growing, leafy lobes held
more or less parallel to the rock
on which it lives. Usually bright
orange in color, it tends to become
greener if in shade. Lichens are widely
used to monitor air pollution because
they simply disappear when conditions
deteriorate. The yellow splash lichen is
particularly sensitive to sulfur dioxide,
a by-product of industrial processes
and of burning fossil fuels.

This smooth, black, crustose lichen
PHYLUM ASCOMYCOTA PHYLUM ASCOMYCOTA
covers large areas of bedrock or stable
Black Tar Lichen boulders in a thin layer, making them Gray Lichen
appear as though they have been
covered with dull black paint. Many Pyrenocollema halodytes
PHYLUM ASCOMYCOTA
Verrucaria maura
THICKNESS types of lichen accumulate heavy SIZE
Black Shields 1 / 32 in (1 mm) metals, and the black tar lichen is no Not recorded
HABITAT exception, having been found to have HABITAT
Intertidal levels of iron that are about 2.5 million Upper shore on rocks
Tephromela atra
and on shells of some
WIDTH times more concentrated than the sedentary invertebrates
Up to 4 in (10 cm) surrounding seawater. That may be
HABITAT DISTRIBUTION Temperate and polar coasts, Indian an adaptation to deter grazers, such DISTRIBUTION Temperate northeast and southwest
In and above the splash Ocean, Japan as gastropods, from eating it. Atlantic
zone
Seen on hard, calcareous rocks, where
DISTRIBUTION Polar coasts, coast of California, US, it forms small, black-brown patches,
Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean gray lichen is unusual in being
an association of three organisms—
Crustose lichens such as black shields, a fungus, a cyanobacteria, and an alga.
which form a crust over the rock, The fungus anchors the lichen to the
attach themselves so firmly using rock; the cyanobacteria and the alga
fungal filaments that they cannot be contain chlorophyll and make food by
easily removed from it. Over time, photosynthesis. The cyanobacteria can
these anchoring filaments break down also utilize nitrogen, a process that uses
the rock as they alternately shrink a lot of energy, and this comes from
when dry and swell when moist. the sugar made during photosynthesis.
Black shields is a thick, gray lichen
with a rough, often cracked, surface
from which project a number of
characteristic black fruiting bodies.
Typically found on exposed sunny
PHYLUM ASCOMYCOTA
rock faces, this lichen looks rather like
Black Tufted Lichen a seaweed, being fruticose (bushlike)
in form with branching, brownish
black, flattened lobes. Its fruiting
Lichina pygmaea
WIDTH (LOBES) bodies form in small swellings at its
To / 2 in (1.5 cm) branch tips. It is often seen growing
1
HABITAT in association with barnacles but does
Lower littoral fringe to not tolerate algal (seaweed) growth.
middle shore, regularly
covered by the tide Its compact growth and rigid branches OCEAN LIFE
provide a refuge for several mollusks,
DISTRIBUTION Northeast Atlantic from Norway to particularly Lasaea rubra, a small,
northwest Africa pink-shelled gastropod. All Lichina
species are limited to coastal habitats.