A comparison of macrolichen species richness and frequency between the oak savanah and boreal woods habitats on Lake of the Woods Islands in Kenora, Ontario, Canada

This comparative lichen study was completed in the northwest area of Ontario, where Lake of the Woods is located. A systematic lichen floral study has never been done in this area. It started with beauty and wonder observing Xanthoria parietina, beautiful orange lichens, on the vertical rock surfaces along the lake channels and wondering about their distribution. This led me to Dr. Michele Piercey-Normore, a lichenologist at the University of Manitoba, to help design a study and to Irwin Brodo\u27s Lichens of North America. Plots along transects were used to compare boreal and oak habitats. Lichens were collected and identified using dichotomous keys and thin-layer chromatography. The boreal habitat had a lichen frequency twice as large as in the oak habitat. The species diversity was similar for both the habitat types and the number of unique lichens collected. The species richness was larger for the boreal habitat when compared to the oak habitat