Monitoring Epiphytic Lichen Biodiversity to DetectEnvironmental Quality and Air Pollution: the Case Study ofRoccamonfina Park (Campania Region - Italy)

In this study, lichen distribution was examined in a district of Campania region to monitor the evolution of air quality at landscape scale. A new methodological approach was tried by overlapping the results of biomonitoring samplings to land cover maps, in order to highlight the relations between air pollution and land use patterns. The main objectives of this work were the following: i) to evaluate air quality on the studied area with the aid of IBL index, and reporting geo-referenced data on a thematic map; ii) to relate lichen distribution and biodiversity to land use spatial patterns; iii) to put the basis for a comparative analysis focussed on changes induced by the present socio-economic evolution of the plain, from agriculture to industrial and tertiary; iv) to provide a reproducible protocol for monitoring air quality, identifying clusters of lichen species linked to particular land use models and formulating previsions about environmental quality on areas characterized by similar dynamics.