SCANNING ELECTRONMICROSCOPY OF COLONIZING ROCK SURFACES IN THE FAR NORTH, CANADA (Twelfth Symposium on Polar Biology)

• Main Authors: Dianne FAHSELT, Scott SWEET
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Proceeding 1991
• Subjects: Canada; Ellesmere Island; Northwest Territories; glacier*; Polar Biology; Proceedings of the NIPR Symposium on Polar Biology
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=5127; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00005127/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=5127&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

There is little information concerning the reproductive modes of lichens or the nature of available diaspores in natural habitats at northern latitudes. On bare areas, establishment is often extremely slow. This paper reports scanning electronmicroscopy of natural rock substrates in the ablation zone of a valley glacier in Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, a primary bare area of known age in which nearly all of the invading saxicolous species were lichens. Rock surfaces were examined for propagules as well as developing hyphae. The expanse of available substrate was vast, and while many samples contained no evidence of biological entities, spores were frequently encountered, some with associated hyphae. There were no recognizable thallus fragments or isidia in the samples and few structures that appeared to be soredia. Both spores and mycelial growths were most often found in protected microscopic enclaves on the rock, rather than evenly distributed over the entire surface.