How do you get drinking water in the coastal Atacama? Make a fog catcher! This device can produce liters of water a day during heavy fog. The lichens in this shrub get their water the same way, by intercepting fog.
Santessonia cervicornis (picture below) is a free living or vagrant (blows around like a tumbleweed) lichen currently known only from near our study site. After completing our study of lichen communities along an altitudinal gradient, we also mapped and estimated the population of S. cervicornis. Since it is so rare, we will use our data to encourage Chilean authorities to protect this species. The population is essentially on hillside (see below with Reinaldo and Daniel as two tiny specks on each side for scale) where it grows interspersed with at least three other vagrant lichen species.
It is so dry there are few cacti in this area. Those that we did see were covered with lichens, at least on the side facing the ocean.
Peter spends a lot of the day with his face a few centimeters from the ground searching for lichens in the quadrats while Daniel records the data. We also measure the topographic variation of ground within the quadrat (Peter with ruler ).
Very windy today . Sand blowing in our faces but we finished a Transect at 850 m elevation, basically the top of the hill. Pictured below is one of our quadrats, Daniel taking lichen photos and Reinaldo wrapping delicate lichen specimens in toilet paper.
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The TeamDaniel, Peter and Reinaldo. Archives
January 2016
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