Epiphytic lichens of a poorly explored National Park: is the probabilistic sampling effective to assess species of conservation concern?

Over the past 10 years, three National Parks have been established in southern Italy. This bought to the scientific attention the status of natural resources in these territories. The knowledge base completion, that includes also usually neglected organisms, is necessary for managing biodiversity. Although lichens are not included in the European conservation policies, they play well-known ecological roles in various ecosystems. The aim of this work is to propose a rapid but exhaustive approach to assess epiphytic lichen diversity in this area. For this purpose, the probabilistic sampling was tested. A total of 149 taxa of epiphytic lichens were recorded, including 20 new records for the Campania region and four new species for Southern Italy. Furthermore, seven red listed species were found. The majority of the recorded taxa can be considered as old-growth indicator species. The results confirm that the probabilistic approach can be efficiently applied to assess lichen diversity in very poorly explored natural areas over large territories.