Daniel Stanton, a National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration grantee, is studying why organisms like lichens grow and behave the way they do and what consequences this has for their surroundings. We often think of plants as suffering the conditions imposed by their environment, but Stanton, who has been working with a research team at Alto Patache—37 miles south of Iquique, Chile—says there is indeed some interaction between plants and their micro-environments.
«Our project aims to understand how organisms such as lichens can not only survive but [also] diversify in the world’s driest desert. Part of this involves identifying where different species grow and what characteristics they share that might allow them to survive.
“[To do that], we are characterizing the details of each location (for example, sand, rock, or soil; slope; microclimate), as well as the characteristic traits of each lichen species (choice of algal partner, shape, and chemistry, for example).
“Of course, this also means looking where lichens don’t grow to determine what makes those places different. Here, the empty patch of sand that Peter Nelson, a lichenologist with the University of Maine at Fort Kent, is marking would be home to some spectacularly unique endemic lichens—if it were just a bit further upslope, where the coastal fog brings regular moisture.
“Down here, however, only a few rugged species cling to the rocks that Reinaldo Vargas, of Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, is collecting off in the distance. It made for a quick site to study, but a tough climb back to our base at the top of the ridge—the steep, loose sand you see in the photo is especially hard going.”
—Daniel Stanton, Committee for Research and Exploration grantee
Original Link
