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3271953 
Book/Book Chapter 
The recovery of a simplified lichen community near the Palmerton Zinc Smelter after 34 years 
Howe, NM; Lendemer, JC 
2011 
Bibliotheca Lichenologica 
106 
127-142 
WOS:000291365700013 
In a landmark study in 1972, Thomas H. Nash III surveyed the lichen communities in the vicinity of the Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania immediately downwind of a large-scale operating zinc smelter in the city of Palmerton, Pennsylvania and compared them to those of a relatively unpolluted site approximately 30 miles away in the Delaware Water Gap. He found that the lichen cover and diversity were considerably lower in the highly contaminated sites of the Lehigh Gap, and concluded that lichen diversity and abundance had been severely negatively impacted by the air pollution emanating from the zinc smelter there. In 2006, we repeated Nash's study of lichens in the Lehigh Gap using the same methodology in order to see what changes had occurred in the intervening 34 years with cessation of zinc smelting in 1980. We found increased lichen cover and species diversity in comparing the data from 1972 and 2006. In total across all transects, lichen cover on rocks and soils went from 7.6 m(2) to 22 m(2) (296% increase) and in corticolous lichens, the cover went from 0.60 m(2) to 1.4 m(2) (229% increase). Species diversities (as measured by the Shannon-Wiener diversity index) increased concurrently. The average diversity of transects through rocks and soils at the Lehigh Gap increased from 0.32 to 2.7 (859%), and average corticolous lichen diversity increased from .42 to 1.5 (348%) We conclude that the lichen community is recovering on the basis of increased lichen diversity and lichen cover. 
ecology; lichen communities; Pennsylvania; zinc smelter