Lichens of Lough Corrib

Aims and Objectives

We based our Aims and Objectives on four things. 1. Abundance,2. variety, 3. significance and 4. an in depth study.

Abundance
The lichens population on the islands is so strong on the islands, we believe that maybe the islands should be preserved or protected in some way. At present the islands are barely ever visited, only by the odd fisherman and their presence should not be interrupted as we believe that they are great minders of the environment and monitor it carefully for any signs of detioration. Some of the lichens are so big, they must be growing for many years.

Variety
The lichens on the islands vary in colour, in size and in location. For example, on the west side of Rouillaun Mór, and Rouillaun Lár the lichens mainly grew on the west side of the islands rather than the on east side, and on the stones but on Rouillaun Theas the lichens are mainly on the trees. Some of the colours go from black all the way to bright yellow.

3. Significance
The lichens are significant in many ways. The lichens are bio sensitive as they only grow in areas where the air is unpolluted and pure even though they rely on nitrogen.

4. An in depth study
An in-depth study of lichens of this area should be done as it is so difficult to identify lichens. When you look at things like mammals or even grasses books can be bought easily with great identification keys, but lichens are not the same. Illustrated lichen books are rare, the earliest published book we found was in 1992 and another good identification book which is over €300.
This is one of the reason we chose this project.