I'm out west this week surveying some patches of woodland on the Balmacara estate outwith the well known Coille Mhor SSSI. There's some amazing lichens about, like these lovely Pseudocyphellaria citrina and P. norvegica. #lichenGBI

Had a good day at Glasdrum NNR filling a few gaps in my knowledge of Scottish rainforest lichens with the help of Oliver Moore. This was the find of the day, the nationally rare jelly Leptogium hibernicum. #lichenGBI @plantlifeuk.bsky.social

Nice looking gig in Wales for any lichen ecologists interested in old mine sites jobs.miningremediation.co.uk/vacancies/60...

Found a lichen lifer today, Catolechia wahlenbergii, one of our rarest arctic-alpines. In Glen Nevis, VC97. Last official record from the area in an adjacent monad was 2003. What a beauty! #lichenGBI

I've been out on my first fieldwork with NTS this week looking at some of their woodland sites in Perthshire. Some nice old growth indicators tucked in there, including Lopadium disciforme (black fruits) and Mycobilimbia sphaeroides (brown fruits). Also Oliver Moore.

😍 Great to see some lichen love from April Windle of the @britishlichensociety.org.uk, plus our own Bill Bealey explaining how our LicheN app is used for measuring sensitivity to nitrogen pollution Featured on BBC News ⤵️ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 🧪

I'll be spending a bit more time here from now on, pretty neat to have access to all the specimens in the RBGE herbarium

Ever seen Pseudevernia furfuracea fruiting before? I'm not sure I have, but here it is on Pinus sylvestris on the shore of Loch Gamhna, Rothiemurchus VC96

Big new start for me tomorrow - after a decade in the research world, for the next two years I'm going to be working with National Trust for Scotland learning what it takes to be an independent lichen surveyor.

Another one from the Tafraout granite. This looks superficially like some images of Acarospora strigata (I've never seen this in person so just having a stab...)

Some neat Psoras from near Tafraout in Morocco. The first I'm guessing is P. decipiens complex (I was wondering if P. savizcii given the pink squamules, but uncertain of the gypsum content of the soil). The second, looking very green after rain, I'm unsure. @annevankow.bsky.social any thoughts?

Ecography - Wiley Online Library nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Want to work on biodiversity in the Alps? ⛰️ We are offering several internship positions for the upcoming spring and summer in collaboration with the Biodiversity Monitoring South Tyrol 🕷️🦋🦇🐜🌼🦗🪱 biodiversity.eurac.edu/interns-want...

PhD Position in Taxonomic and Molecular Diversity of Epiphytic Lichens, Bryophytes & Microorganisms at Future Forests, University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg’s Excellence Cluster Future Forests invites applications for a PhD position researching the taxonomic and molecular diversity of…

This paper raises the possibility that lichens had evolved by the late Ordovician, contemporary with earliest vascular plants 🧪⚒️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Great article about fieldwork in Iceland this summer (in Icelandic but Google Translate does a decent job). I was invited to join by lichenologist Starri Heiðmarsson who I met thanks to the @ukarcticoffice.bsky.social UK-Iceland Arctic Science Partnership Scheme heimildin.is/grein/25295/...

Nitrates can really mess up lichens, but Xanthoria seems to deal with it pretty well. This article suggests that hydration plays a role, with Xanthoria better able to cope with stress when moist and metabollically active. #lichenresearch www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A while ago I did a little experiment in getting a LLM to write some code to draw pictures of lichens. It was very apparent that it had no idea what it was doing. Looks like the situation hasn't gotten any better.

Remote sensing of lichens with drones for detecting dinosaur bones: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this lumpy lecidioid thing (mica schist at ~800m VC96). I was half expecting a mutant Rhizo, but microscopy said otherwise.... #lichenGBI

Based on morphology and molecular data, sixteen new species are described as part of a study on the taxonomy of Protoblastenia in Finland. 🔗 doi.org/10.3897/myco...

#Fire avoidance & long-term population decline in the endangered Florida ground #lichen #Cladonia perforata within a pyrogenic habitat New #AJB research by @sterlingherron.bsky.social, Katherine Charton, Sarah Haller Crate, Stacy Smith, et al. doi.org/10.1002/ajb2... #botany #plantscience

UTTERLY SURREAL LOW ANGLE GLACIER SLIDE!! 😮😱 On Saturday at 11:00 am, a 2 km-long, 25 m-high, and 150-200 m in width section detached off the Ismoil Somoni Glacier (Tajikistan) and slid down the gorge! 🧊🌊 asiaplustj.info/en/node/354309 📽️ via @volcaholic1

There are 110 other posts in the vicinity and I took a closer look at about 40 of them. The original one I noticed still happened to be the best in my opinion, in terms of "terrain" and diversity.

In this paper, we show that photobiont diversity increases as lichens age. Interestingly, as the thallus grows, autosporine algae become more prevalent at the expense of zoosporine algae, likely because the latter play a key role in lichen establishment. 1url.cz/@Proto

Stereocaulon condensatum. This is a thing frequently associated with mine spoil so really nice to see it in a more natural setting - exposed soil flushed by mineral rich rock at ~800m VC96 #lichenGBI

Some very fine looking Trapeliopsis pseudogranulosa VC106 #LichenGBI

PhD opportunity with me at University of Edinburgh linked with Forest Research, funded by E5 DTP. On the microbial mechanisms of soil carbon cycling in tree-planted upland soils. Apply before 14th Dec. Please share with your network. Pic: one of our Scottish sites. e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

Part of: Exploring the Hidden Fungal Diversity: Biodiversity, Taxonomy, and Phylogeny of Saprobic Fungi doi.org/10.3897/myco...

Nice new study from Veronika Kantnerova and @skaloud.bsky.social - lichen photobionts are not fixed from the 'birth' of a thallus and increase in diversity as a lichen ages academic.oup.com/femsec/artic...

BLS will welcome applications from members for travel grants to attend IAL10 next summer. The full details of the application process and closing date for applications are on the website. britishlichensociety.org.uk/the-society/....

Come to Copenhagen to work on #moss #cyanobacteria interactions! Still time to apply for this postdoc position!! 👇

Orphniospora moriopsis on gneissose granite, Strath Vaich. I think this thing is pretty underrecorded on account of it being a fairly mysterious black crust, but when it's mature it develops a distinct orange pruina which can help to tell it apart from other things

Instagram is driving me insane and I'm missing the old days of Twitter so I'm going to try and start being a bit more active on here.

Some super lichens here in the Dolomites. A favourite of the trip so far is Bellemerea alpina, a species that's incredibly scarce in the Cairngorms but in the heart of its range here.

En route to the First Symposium of Alpine Lichenology. Very excited for this! I'll be discussing work from our Scottish hills and looking forward to putting it in the context of mountain environments on a wider scale.

Interesting looking study on the effects of seabird droppings on plant communities. Not read properly yet, but a quick skim and lichens are only mentioned once, despite being the only 'plant' visible in the lead photo (yes I know they're not plants, but)

Female Belted Beauty moth. This is the Scottish subspecies, Lycia zonaria atlantica, found on machair grassland in the Hebrides (here on Mingulay)

In Birmingham for our workshop on lichen microbiomes thanks to the NERC Arctic Office. Here's @ingeborgklarenberg.bsky.social talking about her work on lichen associated communities in Antarctica

Good to see the BBS has made it over here too

A map that centers on New Zealand, which I guess is reparation for all the maps that leave New Zealand off entirely.

Aquatic photosynthesis knowledge would be at a considerably lower level without John Raven. What a life and legacy! 🌊 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Lots of this lovely Usnea ciliata to be found on the Grand Traverse of the Remarkables above Queenstown. A New Zealand endemic, one of its defining characteristics is the purple-black pigmentation at the ends of its branches

Want a quick overview before diving into @metalichen.bsky.social et al's new work on Xanthoria -omics in @currentbiology.bsky.social? Read our commentary here www.cell.com/current-biol...

Currently in New Zealand and blown away by the lichen assemblages here. Many familiar genera, but new species to me and boy are those macrolichens BIG. Here are Sticta latifrons, Yarrumia colensoi, and Stereocaulon ramulosum from the Mt Aspiring national park.

Some personal news: I was made redundant from UKClimbing as Editor-in-Chief after 10 years in the company. I'll continue my freelance journalism, but I'm also open to part/ full-time reporting/writing/editing opportunities and story tips. RTs/shares much appreciated. Thank you! www.natalie-berry.com

Would love to see this in the wild some day - what a beauty

Hunting for frosty Cladonia in the Cairngorms this morning. Glad to get fieldwork out of the way before the impending cataclysm of Storm Eowyn

If you're interested in finding out more about lichens, do look at the British Lichen Society's (BLS) events page for walks, talks and more across the country over the next few months britishlichensociety.org.uk/the-society/...

Welcoming the British Lichen Society to Bluesky, just in time for this year's AGM at the Natural History Museum in London.