Svalbard is the Arctic archipelago formerly known as Spitzbergen. Lichens are a conspicuous part of the flora, and contribute greatly to its biodiversity. Although once an exotic destination mostly visited by whalers and scientific expeditions, it is now a common destination for bird watchers, other naturalists, and ecologists. Because lichens are so common, many visitors like to learn more about them, and the biologists often need to identify them, as they constitute over half of the species in the area, and ignoring them will make their other data useless.
The lichen floras of the arctic areas around the pole are much more similar to each other than, for instance, the lichen floras of tropical regions. In the absence of a special Svalbard lichen flora, lichens have been so far identified from books treating, for example, the Norwegian lichens or those from Greenland or the North-American Arctic. However, every area has its special species, which tend to be overlooked or misclassified.
This flora fills the void well, at least for lichenologists. The book contains concise descriptions of all accepted taxa and keys for their identification. They are well prepared and presented, but require a profound lichenological knowledge, a good microscope, and use of tlc, as key questions can be like “Pannaric acid 6-methyl acid present?”. The generic key leans heavily on difficult characters such as chemistry and ascus type, and for instance, Frutidella keys out with “Thallus with sphaerophorin”, at a place where genera such as Biatora, Lecidea, Lecidella, and Micarea have not yet been keyed out.
Alongside a description, notes on ecology and distribution are given, and a few specimens or, if no specimen was seen, other references, are cited for each species. Types are only cited when studied for this book. Not all type specimens from Svalbard are cited, suggesting that some (e.g. Lecidella spitsbergensis) were not studied.
The book treats 742 species, 151 of which are reported for the first time from Svalbard. About a dozen further species are treated but left unnamed. Seven species are newly described (one of which is also known from Greenland and one also from Iceland and Norway), and a few new combinations are made. One of the new species (a Bryocaulon) is not illustrated, which is a major omission, and for another (a Placynthium) only a few ascopores are drawn, neglecting the lobe configuration which is of the utmost importance in this genus. Also, illustrations of the newly combined Cetraria and Stereocaulon (of which the original publications bear no illustrations either) would have been welcome. They would possibly have added strength to the arguments of the authors as well, as there are currently considerable doubs on the validity of these taxa. In the case of the Cetraria: is it a fungus-induced aberration or a sound species, and if so, what is its difference from the alpine C. obtusata? Stereocaulon keys out on habitat rather than a hard character. It is stated that is “clearly different from S. intermedium”, but not in which way.
The nomenclature of the flora does not follow any checklist or other flora and seems to date to the first years of this century; for example all brown Parmeliae are still in Melanelia, Chromatochlamys is still accepted, and Lecidea lurida is in Mycobilimbia. The cut-off point for literature is not given; some papers from 2009 are cited, but only the first edition of the Lichen flora of the British Isles is referred to.
The book is in general carefully written with few mistakes or factual errors. Minor mistakes are, for example, that Taenionella is consistently wrongly spelled (on pp. 132 and 133), and that it is said (re Byssoloma sp.) that (the Scandinavian) Fellhanera species are restricted to organic material, while in reality they are common on rock.
Regardless of the above minor criticisms the book is a must for every lichenologist, also for those without access to Svalbard specimens and with no travel plans in that direction, as it contains modern descriptions of many taxa for which they are not readily available elsewhere. The most useful sections, also in other arctic areas, are probably the treatments of Aspicilia and Verrucaria, both genera being accompanied by several illustrations. If the number of illustrations had been similar for the remaining genera, the book would be additionally useful for other botanists and naturalists. Perhaps an accompanying booklet or website could be prepared to fill that void.
