Data from: The weight of the crust: biomass of crustose lichens in tropical dry forest represents more than half of foliar biomass
Data files
Aug 03, 2020 version files 39.93 KB
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TABLE_S1.docx
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TABLE_S2.docx
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Abstract
Methods
For Table S1:
Lichen tissue on top of a 2 cm2 area of bark was carefully scraped from each of 20 previously collected pieces of bark, representing 20 common lichen species in the forest. Collection technique for these bark pieces consisted of using a knife to remove, from a living tree, a small and thin piece of the outer bark with the lichen of interest on it. Each cut was made carefully to avoid reaching into the cambium layer of the tree. Loss of material was avoided by continuously dampening each bark sample and scraping it with a single razor blade under the stereoscope. Special care was taken to avoid removing the bark layer which has a different texture and color than the wet lichens. The collected tissue was heated for 24 h at 60°C and weighed immediately to the nearest 0.1 mg with an Ohaus Analytical Plus balance. All measurements were transformed to g/m2.
For Table S2:
We measured the bark surface area of 62 randomly selected trees that did not branch below 2.5 m. Trees were haphazardly selected a few meters to the side of a sinuous transect of 2.5 km that followed three trails inside the Reserve. The selected trees were a typical representation of the species present in the Reserve and included different DBH sizes and percentages of lichen cover. For each tree, we measured the bark surface area on the lowest 2.5 m of the main trunk using the formula for the lateral surface area of a truncated cone with diameter measurements at 0.3 m and 2.5 m high. The lichen cover of the measured area was visually estimated as a percentage by dividing the area in at least 8 smaller zones that included the lower and upper parts of the lowest 2.5 m of the main trunk at each cardinal point. The lichen biomass in the lowest 2.5 m of each tree was calculated as the product of the bark surface area in m2, the lichen cover percentage per tree, and the mean lichen dry mass in g/m2.