Hypothesis

H1: There will be an abundance of lichen species in the zone with the lowest concentration of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere due to the fact that the SO2 levels will be damaging to the lichens thallus. Data in these groups will be comparable to the control.

H2: The two sample t-test will show a significant difference in species abundance between zones.

Significance

This project is significant because, if effective, lichens may be used as indicators of sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels. If so, lichens could ultimately be used as a method to determine SO2 levels in central Florida as well as in other parts of the world. Many agencies such as the Clean Air Act and the Environmental Protection Agency are currently trying to lower the amount of pollution in their environments because certain concentrations of SO2 may cause adverse and even fatal effects on humans. By determining the degree of SO2 emitted in some areas, people may be more encouraged to prevent pollution. By reducing the amount of pollution emitted, the risk of pollution caused illness in an environment should be proportionally reduced. However, sulfur dioxide that is currently being emitted from vehicles, factories, and many other sources in many areas are poisonous to the lichens needed to be used for indication in many ways: lichens have no true root, and so they absorb nutrients directly from the air, meaning they directly intake pollution and pollution indiscriminately harms the thallus of lichens making them unable to produce soredia which inhibits their ability to reproduce. A primary motive for the testing of lichens is derived from the fact that since pollution does effect a lichens ability to reproduce, certain species that are susceptible to pollution will presumably only occur in areas of low vehicle exposure. Thus, meaning that if certain lichen species are unique to specific areas, the level of pollution in that area will be more easily determined.

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment is to augment the use of lichens as indicators of sulfur dioxide levels by making the process more efficient as well as to obtain quantitative measurements of the amount of sulfur dioxide exposed to the environment by locating indicative lichen species. The project will also be used to acquire more results in a home environment with species unique to Central Florida and different indicative factors than tested in previous research comparable to this experiment. Ultimately, the project’s purpose is to write a more accurate, detailed procedure for using lichens to identify sulfur dioxide levels by giving actual values of abundance instead of recording presence of lichens in an area and only observing color and size.