Air Quality Monitoring on the Tongass National Forest: Methods and Baselines Using Lichens

摘要

An air quality biomonitoring program for the Tongass National Forest was initiated to (1) establish baseline conditions, (2) develop sensitive, easily repeatable methods for continued monitoring, and (3) provide methods and information to help Forest Supervisors meet Forest Service responsibilities described by the Forest Service Air Resource Handbook and the Clean Air Act. Baseline conditions were described through (1) element analysis of 366 samples of four lichens common to the forests and muskegs of the Tongass National Forest ('Alectoria sarmentosa, Cladina rangiferina, Hypogymnia enteromorpha, and Lobaria oregana'), (2) a forest-wide inventory of the macrolichens and their habitat characteristics at 176 temporary and permanent standardized sites evenly distributed in clusters over the Tongass and more than 45 additional collecting areas, and (3) a quantitative community analysis of branch lichen abundance in two common old growth forested habitats: shorepine ('Pinus contorta'), and western hemlock ('Tsuga heterophylla').