Question

Develop a hypothesis on Lichen Growth and Canopy Openness in the PNW

Answer 1

Lichens are stress-tolerant organisms due to the fact of being the result of the symbiosis between a fungus and an alga. While the fungus can form a mycelium and reproduce sexually, it keeps the alga from suffering dehydration, while the alga provides the fungus with nutrients such as glucose and other sugars produced from CO2 reduction in photosynthesis. So there should be lichens in all the PNW region since they can live even in the most harsh environments, such as deserts, however, lichens should grow better as moisture and precipitation are higher, and moreover, we could expect that lichens diversity should be higher in moist environments than in dry environments, so we could expect that should grow better and be more diverse in the northern area of the PNW, and in the western area, while they should be less diverse and don't grow at a high rate in the south- eastern areas that are drier.

Something similar should happen with Canopy Openness. Experimentally, we can measure Canopy Openness by measuring the Light Availability, so we can expect a Canopy Openness to be lesser in the mild areas previously mentioned since trees will be able to grow higher and will be able to develop a more leaves and a higher Leaf Area and they will grow close to one another, while Canopy Openness should be higher in the dry southeastern areas since trees will not be able to grow so easily and should not develop a high Leaf Area and will grow more separated, thus, Canopy Openness will be higher.

So, if we correlate Canopy Openness and Lichen Growth, we could expect that as Canopy Openness increases, Lichen Growth should decrease and vice versa, while Canopy Openness decreases, Lichen Growth should increase.