{"id":72475,"date":"2025-11-08T13:34:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=72475"},"modified":"2025-11-08T15:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T10:01:10","slug":"lichen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/lichen\/","title":{"rendered":"Lichen"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Lichen Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers recently discovered four new lichen species, enhancing biodiversity understanding in the Western Ghats.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Why in News?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The newly identified species \u2013 <\/span><b>Parmotrema sahyadricum<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (discovered from <\/span><b>Wayanad<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), <\/span><b>Solenopsora rhizomorpha<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (from <\/span><b>Eravikulam and Mathikettanshola National Parks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), <\/span><b>Buelloa ghattensis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><b>Mathikettanshola National Park<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) and <\/span><b>Pyxine janakiae (Mathikettanshola National Park<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) \u2013 have been published in international scientific journals.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The work that started in 2022 resulted in these discoveries.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team also recorded more than 50 species of lichens, which are new reports to the Kerala part of the Western Ghats.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>About Lichen<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lichen is a <\/span><b>symbiosis between<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> different organisms \u2014 <\/span><b>a fungus and an algae or cyanobacterium.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The basis of their relationship is the <\/span><b>mutual benefit<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that they provide each other.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria form simple carbohydrates <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that, when excreted, are <\/span><b>absorbed by fungi cells<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>transformed into a different carbohydrate.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>also produce vitamins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that the fungi need.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Fungi <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">contribute to the symbiosis by <\/span><b>absorbing water vapour from the air<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and by <\/span><b>providing much-needed shade for the light-sensitive algae beneath.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>composite body<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of a lichen is <\/span><b>called a thallus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (plural thalli); the body is<\/span><b> anchored to its substrate by hairlike growths called rhizines.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lichens are <\/span><b>found worldwide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and occur in a variety of environmental conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A diverse group of organisms, they <\/span><b>can colonize a wide range of surfaces<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and are frequently <\/span><b>found on tree bark, exposed rock, and as a part of biological soil crust.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Benefits that Lichen Give to Nature<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are a <\/span><b>keystone species<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in many ecosystems.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They serve as a <\/span><b>food source and habitat <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for many animals, such as deer, birds, and rodents.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They provide <\/span><b>nesting materials for birds.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>protect trees and rocks from extreme elements <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as rain, wind, and snow.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Pioneers of Colonization:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lichens are considered as <\/span><b>primary colonisers. <\/b><\/li>\n<li>These <b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">invade bare areas and contribute to soil formation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by breaking down rock minerals both physically and chemically and thus creating conditions for other species such as mosses and liverworts to follow.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/a-team-of-researchers-from-maharajas-college-kochi-discovers-four-new-species-of-lichens-from-western-ghats\/article70243306.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lichen is a symbiosis between different organisms \u2014 a fungus and an algae or cyanobacterium. Read more about Lichen, Discovery, Benefits, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":72530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[246,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-72475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-current-affairs","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}