Can field botany be effectively taught as a distance course? Experiences and reflections from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020 forced a rapid change in university teaching, with large numbers of courses switching to distance learning with very little time for preparation. Courses involving many practical elements and field excursions required particular care if students were to fulfil planned learning outcomes. Here, we present our experiences in teaching field botany in 2020 and 2021.

Tree species identity and composition shape the epiphytic lichen community of structurally simple boreal forests over vast areas.

Greatly simplified ecosystems are often neglected for biodiversity studies. However, these simplified systems dominate in many regions of the world, and a lack of understanding of what shapes species occurrence in these systems can have consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services at a massive scale. In Fennoscandia, ~90% of the boreal forest (~21Mha) is structurally simplified with little knowledge of how forest structural elements shape the occurrence and diversity of for example epiphytic lichens in these managed forests.

Refining the picture: new records to the lichen biota of Italy.

Based on the analysis of both historical and recent collections, this paper reports an annotated list of taxa which are new to the lichen biota of Italy or of its administrative regions. Specimens were identified using a dissecting and a compound microscope; routine chemical spot tests and standardized thin-layer chromatography (TLC or HPTLC). The list includes 225 records of 153 taxa.

The Plot Thickens: Haploid and Triploid-Like Thalli, Hybridization, and Biased Mating Type Ratios in .

The study of the reproductive biology of lichen fungal symbionts has been traditionally challenging due to their complex lifestyles. Against the common belief of haploidy, a recent genomic study found a triploid-like signal in . Here, we infer the genome organization and reproduction in by analyzing genomic data from a pure culture and from thalli, and performing a PCR survey of the MAT locus in natural populations.