Getting to know our biomonitor neighbours: urban lichens and allied fungi of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada: Phylogenetic Datasets

Here we provide one of the first detailed studies of lichen and allied fungi diversity in a continental North American city (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), including an annotated checklist, images of all species, dichotomous keys, and local distribution maps. Edmonton is the northernmost city in North America with a population of over one million, and an industrial and transportation gateway for much of northern Canada. Lichen-based biomonitoring could be a tool to track airborne pollutants resulting from Edmonton’s growing populace and industrial activity. The first step towards such a program is documenting the diversity and distribution of lichens in the city. To accomplish this, we conducted a city-wide, systematic survey of 191 sites focused on epiphytes growing on deciduous boulevard trees. We augmented that survey with surveys of rare trees, opportunistic collections from river valley and ravine habitats, herbarium collections, phylogenetic analyses of a subset of collections, and o...