Vitality assessment of exposed lichens along different altitudes. Influence of weather conditions

To evaluate the effects of the ambient climatic conditions in lichen vitality along some well oriented transect in different altitudes, lichen transplants of Parmotrema bangii were exposed approximately every 250 m starting from 50 to 1500 m during a 1-year period in 3 transects along Pico mountain at Azores; electric conductivity of leachates, elemental concentrations, and the ambient conditions such as temperature, precipitation, humidity, and altitude were the compared parameters. According to the obtained values of electric conductivity, it is credible to consider that vitality was not seriously affected under different altitudes. In accordance with previous studies, electric conductivity values in this study show high negative correlation with precipitation and humidity. The significantly high differences between minimum and maximum electric conductivity values found along the altitude transect makes that, when comparing elemental concentrations in time or spatial series, it is required a comparison with lichen vitality, because the different vitality stages could induce variability in metal uptake.