Native loop lichen (Hypotrachyna isidiocera) © CDF Frank Bungartz

Lichens - small inconspicuous plants that live on the bark of trees or even on bare rock - are sensitive environmental indicators and are often the earliest warning signs that something has gone wrong. During February and March, CDF's new lichen specialist, Dr Frank Bungartz, and visiting consultant Dr André Aptroot, explored all vegetation zones on eight different islands to update the lichen surveys last undertaken during the 1980s. As a result, a staggering 300 new species' records for Galapagos are now housed at the CDRS herbarium amongst more than 4000 specimens collected during the survey.

Lichens have recently been used to assess the impact of burning trash at the domestic waste site on Santa Cruz Island. Results indicate the urgent need to establish alternatives for waste disposal. This is a clear example of how monitoring the lichen flora in Galapagos will help give advance warning that an ecosystem might be unstable, a useful tool when balancing the needs of the human population with the conservation of Galapagos.

Deep-water endemic octocorals known as sea pens © CDF

A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) is changing the way that CDF marine staff carry out marine ecological monitoring. Such studies are critical to evaluate the state of marine resources and the effectiveness of the coastal zonation system established by the Galapagos National Park Service in 2000. The ROV allows researchers, who were previously restricted to safe diving depths of around 100ft, to access depths of up to 500ft, to take video footage and collect marine samples in previously uncharted habitats.

The first explorations in early April revealed an exciting rediscovery of rarely seen, deep-water endemic octocorals known as sea pens, 200ft down in Sullivan Bay off Santiago Island. Sea pens were once more abundant in the sandy bottoms of the cooler waters in the western islands but are considered extremely rare and even locally extinct since the strong El Niño event of 1981/82. Although the strange, featherlike corals disappear into the sand, making collection for positive identification difficult, initial observations suggest that these species (tentatively identified as Virgularia galapagensis, Cavernulina cf. darwini, and a third unnamed species) have persisted in cold, deep water, soft-bottom environments.

“These octocorals may represent the last remaining species that have survived strong climatic events and their collection locations may be sites for future population recovery,” says CDF oceanographer Stuart Banks. “What we are finding using the ROV emphasizes the need to better understand these fascinating habitats. New discoveries are sure to follow.”