From natural forest to cultivated land: Lichen species diversity along land-use gradients in Kanchenjunga, Eastern Nepal Til Bikram Chongbang, Christine Keller, Michael Nobis, Christoph Scheidegger & Chitra Bahadur Baniya Keywords: canopy openness, Canonical Correspondence Analysis, Ghunsa valley, hemispherical photography, land-use change, lichen diversity Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the effects of elevation, land use and canopy open- ness on species richness and composition of lichens in Ghunsa valley of Kanchen- junga Conservation Area, Eastern Nepal. At five elevational levels, from 2 200 m to 3 800 m, transects were established in four land-use types – cultivated land, meadows, exploited and natural forests. Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) and Canonical Correspondence Analysis techniques were used to explore the lichen species distribution patterns. Generalized linear models were applied to analyse the impact of elevation and canopy openness on lichen species richness. Canopy openness was measured by hemispherical photography. A total of 229 species belonging to 71 genera were recorded. The length of the first DCA axis of 8.01 SD units indicated a complete species turnover and high beta diversity along the eleva- tion gradient. Exploited forests with lower canopy openness supported higher lichen diversity than open meadows and cultivated areas. Significant differences in lichen species richness were found for different land-use types, along the elevation gradi- ent, and with varying canopy openness. A gradual increase of lichen species richness from cultivated land to forests was observed. We concluded that substrate types that depend on land-use types as well as canopy openness significantly affect the distri- bution of lichen communities. Research eco.mont – Volume 10, Number 1, January 2018 ISSN 2073-106X print version – ISSN 2073-1558 online version: http://epub.oeaw.ac.at/eco.mont https://dx.doi.org/10.1553/eco.mont-10-1s46 46 Profile Protected area Kanchenjunga Conservation Area Mountain range Himalaya Country Nepal Introduction Lichen diversity along elevational gradients has been analysed intensively in recent years (Bruun et al. 2006; Grytnes et al. 2006; Pinokiyo et al. 2008; Cobanoglu & Sevgi 2009; Baniya et al. 2010; Rai et al. 2011; Baniya et al. 2012) as well as lichen diver- sity along land-use gradients (Bergamini et al. 2005; Motiejûnaitë & Faùtynowicz 2005; Stofer et al. 2006; Wolseley et al. 2006; Giordani et al. 2010). Similarly, some recent studies are concerned with the infuence of canopy openness on species richness, diversity and distribution of lichens (Li et al. 2011; Marmor et al. 2012; Li et al. 2013b, 2013a). However, effects of land- use related canopy openness on species richness and composition of lichens have rarely been studied. Land-use change determines vegetation cover, species composition and distribution patterns of plant communities (Tasser & Tappeiner 2002) and, consequently, the variation in key characteristics of host tree species, like their density, age and diameter, which all infuence the composition and distribution of epiphytic lichen communities (Löbel et al. 2006; Mežaka et al. 2008; Cobanoglu & Sevgi 2009; Li et al. 2011; Mežaka et al. 2012; Odor et al. 2013). Land-use changes, habitat loss and degradation often decline li- chen populations (Scheidegger & Werth 2009). Com- pared with other factors, changing light and moisture conditions are often the dominant factors to explain differences in lichen diversity and abundance (Li et al. 2013a). Nepal is a mountainous country in the central Him- alayas with an area of 147 181 km 2 . It is situated be- tween China in the north and India in the east, south and west. The elevation ranges from 60 m above sea level in Terai to 8 848 m at Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world (Chaudhary 1998). In Nepal, lichens are found in all climatic zones. However, foristic and ecological studies on lichens are largely missing. The latest physiographic data of Ne- pal showed 29 % of the total land area covered by for- ests, 10 % by shrubs and degraded forests and 21 % by cultivated land (MFSC 2009). Land-use and land-cover change are substantial in Nepal; especially the forest cover shows a drastic decline – even in protected areas. For the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area (KCA), for instance, Gautam and Watanabe (2004) found a de- cline in forest land cover by 14.9 % and grazing land cover by 77.9 % between 1979 and 1992. This was the result of an increase in cultivated land by 4.9 % and shrubland by 19.7 %. KCA is a community-managed protected area established in 1997 and handed over to the KCA Management Council by the government of Nepal in 2006. The shifting cultivation is a common traditional farming system practiced in this protected area by the local ethnic groups as their traditional oc-