ABSTRACT The vitality of 64 lichen species (107 individual lichen thalli) growing under different light climates in an Araucaria forest in South Brazil was analyzed by chlorophyll fluorescence. Study sites were grouped according to their local light availability under full sunlight (about 2200 µmol m-2 s-1): 1 = low light, up to 20 µmol m-2 s-1; 2 = medium light, 20 to 100 µmol m-2 s-1; and 3 = high light, more than 100 µmol m-2 s-1. Maximum quantum yield of photosystem II, as shown by Fv/Fm of dark-adapted samples, was mainly between 0.3 and 0.7, with extremes of below 0.1 and up to 0.85. On average, yields were highest with low light availability (0.66). Groups 1 and 2 were not significantly different from each other, but groups 1 and 3, as well as... |