With the participation of Polina Degtjarenko, Researcher of Restoration Ecology of the Landscape Biodiversity Workgroup, a comprehensive overview of the assessment of threat status of Estonian lichens in 2019–2023 was published. Of Estonian nationally recorded 978 lichen species, 415 species are threatened, and slightly more than every third species (344) belong to the category Least Concern.
Red lists are useful tools for planning and implementing local nature conservation activities. The threat status of Estonian lichens based on the IUCN system has been assessed twice, in 2008 and 2023. The overview revealed that out of nationally recorded 978 lichen species, 415 species are threatened, 344 species bare in a favorable condition.
More than half of all Estonian lichens are associated with woodlands and 54% of these species are of elevated conservation concern, i.e. regionally extinct, threatened, and near-threatened species. Lichens preferring broad-leaved deciduous trees included more threatened than LC species, while among lichens preferring other deciduous or coniferous trees the proportion of LC species was higher than that of threatened taxa. Lichens inhabiting calcareous grasslands had the highest share (69%) of taxa of elevated conservation concern.
Comparisons of national red-listed data with four selected countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland and Sweden) revealed that the biggest overlaps of Estonian taxa of elevated conservation concern were with the Czech Republic and Finland.
The scientific article was published in The Lichenologist. Read about the risk assessment of Estonian lichens in the article published in Novaator (in Estonian).
More information:
Polina Degtjarenko
