Lichen are one of the most undervalued organisms on the face of the planet. Watch this video to find out why. Some people have commented that I say the lichen is eating the rock and that this is not the case. I do think I'm using the word "eating" a little more loosely here, to simply mean "derive nutrients from," which Lichen certainly does. Like most fungi, they use external digestion, secreting enzymes and acid into their substrate and deriving (some) nutrients from it. If I made this video again, I would flip the "supplement" part around and say that it makes most of its food using the algae and supplements its diet with nutrients from the rock. Part of the Restoring the Americas Collection, this video has a corresponding blog post. www.newforestearth.org/v0.2/terrible-nature-videos-part-2/

Be the first to comment