Kossowska, M., Fałtynowicz, W. & Szczepańska, K. 2016. Current distribution and ecology of lichens in a biodiversity hotspot in the Mały Śnieżny Kocioł glacial cirque, Sudetes, Poland.—Herzogia 29: 120–136.
The results of lichenological studies conducted on a basalt vein in the Giant Mountains are presented. This site has been known since the 19th century for its rare lichens, as well as for being the locus classicus of more widely distributed taxa. As a result of investigations conducted in 2006 at 20 localities on the basalt intrusion, a total of 117 lichen and eight lichenicolous fungi taxa were discovered. Rhizocarpon anaperum is reported as new in Poland. The results confirm the uniqueness of the basalt vein and its importance for biodiversity in Central Europe. The total number of taxa known from this site increased to 205, but 80 species previously reported were not rediscovered during this study; their absence is probably due to anthropogenic changes in the natural environment, which in the 1970s proved to be an ecological disaster. The greatest loss was sustained by hydrophytic lichens associated with wet rock surfaces.