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Biodiversity of lichens, including a world-wide analysis of checklist data based on Takhtajan’s floristic regions

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Abstract

The similarity of lichenized fungal species composition among the 35 floristic regions recognized by Takhtajan was calculated, based on checklists of 132 geographical units and a first draft of a global checklist of lichens and allied fungi (which lists 18,882 species) to assess biogeographic and biodiversity patters of lichenized fungi. A nearest-neighbour cluster analysis of pair-wise comparisons of species composition data (Jaccard index of similarity) from these geographical units is presented. Four main geographical regions were identified: holarctic, subantarctic/Australian, oceanian, and pantropical. Possible changes of the global species number caused by increasing availability of molecular data are discussed. A prospect on future developments of lichen biodiversity research is provided.

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Acknowledgements

Greg Mueller (Chicago) is thanked for reviewing a previous version of the manuscript, and Robert Lücking (Chicago) for valuable comments on the first draft.

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  1. Biocentre Klein-Flottbek, Ohnhorststr. 18, 22609, Hamburg, Germany

    Tassilo Feuerer

  2. The Yellow House, Calle Aguila 12, Colonia La Maliciosa, Mataelpino, Madrid, 28492, Spain

    David L. Hawksworth

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  1. Tassilo Feuerer
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Correspondence to Tassilo Feuerer.

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Feuerer, T., Hawksworth, D.L. Biodiversity of lichens, including a world-wide analysis of checklist data based on Takhtajan’s floristic regions. Biodivers Conserv 16, 85–98 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-9142-6

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