Research Projects

The project aims to explore diversity of canopy lichens in the different forest ecosystems of Kerala, a region that comes under the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. Lichens, one of the excellent examples of symbiotic association between fungi and algae or cyanobacteria, play important roles in ecosystems such as atmospheric nitrogen fixers, epiphytic rain buffers and water condensers in high-precipitation forests and ecosystems, and providing food and shelter for animals, etc. This study will be the first comprehensive taxonomic account of lichens in the upper tree canopy of India, focusing on different forest ecosystems in Kerala, covering evergreen, moist deciduous, dry deciduous, and shola forests. The project will involve collecting lichen samples from the forest canopies using specialized climbing techniques (SRT) and Anvil tree loppers. The collected samples will be preserved at lichen herbarium of the KFRI. The samples will be identified based on morphological, anatomical, and chemical characters, and DNA will be sequenced to confirm the identity in case of species complexity or if there’s any difficulty to determining the generic status. The project will also study the distribution patterns of canopy lichens using GPS and climatic data to model species distribution. Ecological studies will focus on climatic variables, host specificity, and species comparative analysis in the different forest ecosystems. Sensors will be installed at canopy to record the microclimatic variables. An online database (Website) will be developed to facilitate the identification of canopy lichens including interactive keys, taxonomic descriptions, distribution maps, and photographs. This project will contribute to a boarder understanding of forest ecosystem dynamics and support conservation strategies for lichens. It also aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, SDG15 (Life on Land). The project aims to fill the knowledge gap concerning the diversity and ecological functions of canopy lichens. It will provide a baseline data for monitoring forest health and climate change studies. The data generated can be used for the policy making of conservation and management action of forest areas through working plan of the Forest Department. The study will also help to deposit DNA sequences of many canopy lichen species from the different forest ecosystems of Kerala for the first time in NCBI.