Abstract:

The sensitivity ofHypogymnia physodes,Lobaria pulmonariaandPeltigera aphthosaH. physodesto six photosystem II herbicides and to DBMIB was tested in the laboratory by chlorophyll flouresence and oxygen-exchange measurements. in addition, experiments with freshly isolated photobiont cells fromH. physodesandL. pulmonariawere performed. Generally, the lichens were most sensitive to the urea herbicides diuron and isoproturon, whereas the triazines atrazine, terbuthylazine, and simazine and the triazinone metamitron wre less inhibitory. Among the three lichen species invesigated,H. physodeswas the most sensitive to the urea herbicides. For the other agents, no signifiant differences between lichen species could be found. The highest pI50values obtained from dose response curves were around 6.5 for isolated photobionts, but most values for lichen thalli were in the range 5-6. Thus, there is no particular sensitivity of green algal lichen photobionts to photosytem II herbicides as compared to other algae, higher plant chloroplasts or protoplasts. In nature, we observed recovery from (damaging) treatment with 10−5mol diuron 1−1forH. physodeswithin weeks. Therefore, damage to lichens fromt he use of photosystem-II herbicides in agriculture is probably only of very local occurence. f1 Universität Essen, FB 9 Botanik, Universitätsstr. 5, D–45117 Essen, Germany.