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General Climbing Discussion

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Dogs in Grampians 9-Mar-2012 At 7:28:54 PM Paulie

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On 7/03/2012 The good Dr wrote:
>Basic solutions will have an effect on lichens as in most environments
>the fungal element break down the substrate with acidic compounds to provide
>essential elements. Neutralizing this will lead to an inability of the
>fungal element to supply these nutrients to the photobiotic symbiont. Thus
>leading to die off. Changing the pH of the environment affects the lichen
>as well as each species will have a range of pH tolerance.
>
>MgCO3 (chalk) is insoluble in water, though reacts In acidic environments
>and thus may have an effect on lichen. This is not as extreme as the effect
>of dissolved zinc which is quite toxic to lichen. Peroxide Blonde is a
>perfect example of this phenomenon.

Thanks for that, would definately be interesting to see more research into this as the stuff I have read to date refer both to lichens obtaining nutrients via acidic breakdown of the substrate as you indicate, while at the same time exhibiting more growth in a basic environment - I wonder why this would be the case as the 2 certainly appear to conflict?