Lichen zonation on UK rocky seashores: a trait-based approach to delineating marine and maritime lic

Lichenized fungi are a major component of coastal marine ecosystems. Their distributions transition through a range of distinct environmental pressures that span from daily immersion in sea water to fully terrestrial ecosystems, sometimes within the space of only a few metres (Hawksworth 2000). Natural environmental gradients such as these are important for investigating ecological and evolutionary mechanisms due to their ability to drive shifts in species assemblage, niche differentiation, and local adaptation (Prieto et al. 2017)