ORIGINAL PAPER Geographic heat maps of lichen traits derived by combining LIAS light description and GBIF occurrence data, provided on a new platform Gerhard Rambold 1 • Luciana Zedda 2 • Jessica R. Coyle 3 • Derek Pers ˇoh 4 • Thomas Ko ¨hler 1 • Dagmar Triebel 5 Received: 7 May 2016 / Revised: 27 July 2016 / Accepted: 13 August 2016 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016 Abstract LIAS gtm, a new platform of the LIAS lichen information system, is presented. It allows for the visualization of phenotypic traits via geographic heatmapping of relative trait frequencies (RTFs) based on data derived from GBIF (occurrence data) and from LIAS light (taxon description data). The data are combined and referred to defined geo- graphic areas of interest. Exemplarily, LIAS gtm provides distribution patterns of a selection of single, dual or multiple traits. The data are visualized for two lichen record hotspots, Scandinavia and Australia. Detailed technical information is provided on the platform web site itself. Keywords Biogeography Á Ecoinformatics Á Heatmapping Á Lichen traits Á LIAS gtm Introduction Lichens are characterised by a wide range of traits, several of which are linked to essential ecosystem functions and services (Zedda and Rambold 2015). The phylogenetic evolution of phenotypic traits has been demonstrated for quite a number of lichenised groups (e.g. Pers ˇoh et al. 2004). Such analyses, however, provided just limited or no insights into the Communicated by T.G. Allan Green. This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Forest and plantation biodiversity. & Gerhard Rambold gerhard.rambold@uni-bayreuth.de 1 University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany 2 BIO-Diverse, 53179 Bonn, Germany 3 Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA 4 Ruhr-University of Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany 5 Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns, 80638 Mu ¨nchen, Germany 123 Biodivers Conserv DOI 10.1007/s10531-016-1199-2