Stephen Sharnoff

Last updated

Stephen Sharnoff is a photographer, especially of botanical and lichen subjects. He specializes in close-up botanical color work. He is also a research associate at the University and Jepson Herbaria of the University of California, Berkeley [1] and a past associate of the Missouri Botanical Garden. [2]

With his wife, Sylvia Sharnoff, and the Canadian lichenologist Irwin M. Brodo, he was photographer for Lichens of North America , which won the 2002 National Outdoor Book Award for nature guidebooks. [3] Smithsonian Institution's Thomas Lovejoy commented on the lichen photography that it was "the twenty-first-century equivalent of Audubon's Birds of America." [2] The collection of 1,600 voucher specimens made during this project was initially held by the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Ottawa, Canada but was donated to the United States National Herbarium in 2005. [4] In 2016, the trio, with additional collaborator Susan Laurie-Bourque, produced Keys to Lichens of North America: Revised and Expanded. [5] A further collaboration between the two Sharnoffs and other photographers contributed pictures for Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest. [6]

In 2012 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to support his science writing. [7]

He authored and provided photographs for A Field Guide to California Lichens published in 2014.

In the late 2020s, his enthusiasm for preserving old-growth Douglas fir in the Pacific Northwest led to a new conservation group where he is the vice-president, the Friends of Douglas-Fir National Monument, aiming for the establishment of protection for an area of forest in Oregon. [8] [9]

Publications

Sharnoff has contributed photographs to several books as well as magazines. These include:

The Sharnoff's photographs have appeared in National Geographic , Smithsonian Magazine , Equinox Magazine and Bay Nature. [2] [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Physcia stellaris</i> Species of lichen

Physcia stellaris is a species of lichen. It is pale grey, but darker in the centre, and lacks isidia, lobules, soredia and pruina. It tests negative with potassium hydroxide. In North America, it is known colloquially as the fringed rosette lichen.

Irwin M. Brodo is an emeritus scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He is an authority on the identification and biology of lichens. Irwin Brodo was honored in 1994 with an Acharius Medal presented to him by the International Association for Lichenology.

Soredium

Soredia are common reproductive structures of lichens. Lichens reproduce asexually by employing simple fragmentation and production of soredia and isidia. Soredia are powdery propagules composed of fungal hyphae wrapped around cyanobacteria or green algae. These can be either scattered diffusely across the surface of the lichen's thallus, or produced in localized structures called soralia. Fungal hyphae make up the basic body structure of lichen. The soredia are released through openings in the upper cortex of the lichen structure. After their release, the soredia disperse to establish the lichen in a new location.

<i>Caloplaca saxicola</i> Species of fungus

Caloplaca saxicola is a small bright orange crustose lichen that grows on rock all over the world. It is commonly called rock firedot lichen, jewel lichen or rock jewel lichen.

<i>Caloplaca</i> Genus of lichenised fungi in the family Teloschistaceae

Caloplaca is a lichen genus comprising a number of distinct species. Members of the genus are commonly called firedot lichen, jewel lichen. gold lichens, "orange lichens", but they are not always orange, as in the case of C. albovariegata. The distribution of this lichen genus is worldwide, extending from Antarctica to the high Arctic. It includes a portion of northern North America and the Russian High Arctic. There are about thirty species of Caloplaca in the flora of the British Isles. An example species in this genus is Caloplaca saxicola, a lichen with worldwide distribution including the Antarctic continent, Europe and northern North America including the northern reaches of the Canadian boreal forests.

<i>Esslingeriana</i> Single-species genus of lichen

Esslingeriana is a fungal genus in the family Parmeliaceae. The genus is monotypic, containing the single foliose lichen species Esslingeriana idahoensis, commonly known as the tinted rag lichen. It is found in northwestern North America.

<i>Hypogymnia occidentalis</i> Species of lichen

Hypogymnia occidentalis, commonly known as the lattice tube lichen, is a species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It is found in North America, where it grows on the lower trunks of conifers, particularly Douglas-fir.

<i>Cladonia caespiticia</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia caespiticia is a widespread and common species of fruticose, cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It was originally named Baeomyces caespiticius by German mycologist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1794. Heinrich Gustav Flörke transferred it to the genus Cladonia in 1827. In North America, it is commonly known as the stubby-stalked Cladonia.

<i>Hypogymnia imshaugii</i> Species of lichen in the family Parmeliaceae

Hypogymnia imshaugii, commonly known as the forked tube lichen, is a common species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It was formally described as a new species by Norwegian botanist Hildur Krog in 1968. It has a grey to gray-green thallus with slender lobes measuring up to 2 mm wide that are branched dichotomously at regular intervals. It has cup- to disc-shaped apothecia that are constricted at the base. The lichen grows on conifer branches, preferring inland habitats that are moderately dry.

<i>Bryoria nadvornikiana</i> Species of lichen in the family Parmeliaceae

Bryoria nadvornikiana, commonly known as the spiny grey horsehair lichen or the blonde horsehair lichen, is a species of horsehair lichen in the family Parmeliaceae.

<i>Punctelia appalachensis</i> Species of lichen

Punctelia appalachensis, commonly known as the Appalachian speckled shield lichen, is a species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. It is found in the eastern United States and eastern Canada. The lichen was first formally described in 1962 by lichenologist William Culberson as a species of Parmelia. He collected the type specimen growing on tree bark in West Virginia, Hildur Krog transferred it to the newly circumscribed genus Punctelia in 1982.

<i>Cladonia cornuta</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia cornuta or the bighorn cup lichen is a species of fruticose, cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It was first described as a new species by Swedish lichenologist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal 1753 work Species Plantarum. German biologist Georg Franz Hoffmann transferred it to the genus Cladonia in 1791. The lichen has a distribution that is circumpolar, boreal, and arctic. It has also been recorded from the Southern Hemisphere.

<i>Cladonia subulata</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia subulata is a species of fruticose, cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It was first described as a new species by Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It was transferred to the genus Cladonia by Friedrich Heinrich Wiggers in 1780. In North America, the lichen is colloquially known as the antlered powderhorn or antlered cup lichen.

<i>Cladonia cervicornis</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia cervicornis is a species of cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It was first described by Swedish lichenologist Erik Acharius in 1799 as Lichen cervicornis. Julius von Flotow transferred it to the genus Cladonia in 1849. In North America, it is colloquially known as the ladder lichen or elk's-horn cup lichen.

<i>Cladonia incrassata</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia incrassata or the powder-foot British soldiers cup lichen is a species of cup lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. Found in Europe and North America, it was formally described as a new species in 1828 by German botanist Heinrich Gustav Flörke. A colloquial name for the lichen is "powder-foot British soldiers".

<i>Cladonia leporina</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia leporina is a species of lichen in the family Cladoniaceae. It was described as a new species in 1831 by Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries. In North America, it is colloquially known as the "jester lichen". A sighting of a population of the lichen in New York (state) is the northernmost known occurrence of this species.

<i>Cladonia apodocarpa</i> Species of lichen

Cladonia apodocarpa, also known as the stalkless cladoniais or the stalkless cup lichen, is a species of cup lichen in the Cladoniaceae family. Found in North America, it was described as a new species by Charles Albert Robbins in 1925.

<i>Candelaria fibrosa</i> Species of fungi

Candelaria fibrosa is a species of fungi. In English, it goes by the common name lemon lichen. It also goes by the common name fringed candleflame lichen.

<i>Hypogymnia krogiae</i> Species of lichen

Hypogymnia krogiae, commonly known as the freckled tube lichen, is a species of foliose lichen in the family Parmeliaceae. Found in North America, it was described as a new species in 1973 by Karl Ohlsson. The type specimen was collected near Cheat Bridge, West Virginia by Mason Hale in 1956.

A bryophilous lichen is one that grows on a bryophyte – that is, on a moss or liverwort. Lichens are slow-growing organisms, and so are far more likely to be overgrown by a bryophyte than to overgrow one. However, they are better able to compete if the bryophyte is sickly or decaying and they can be parasitic upon them. Some, rather than overgrowing the bryophyte, instead live among its branches. Bryophilous lichens are particularly common in heathland and arctic or alpine tundra. Because many are small and inconspicuous, they are easy to overlook.

References

  1. "Research Associates and other affiliates". The University and Jepson Herbaria University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Stephen Sharnoff, National Geographic
  3. Watters, Ron. "Winners of the 2002 National Outdoor Book Awards". National Outdoor Book Awards . Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  4. "The Expanding Lichen Collection". Plant Press. 8 (2). January 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  5. Brodo, Irwin M; Laurie-Bourque, Susan; Sharnoff, Sylvia Duran; Sharnoff, Stephen (2016). Keys to Lichens of North America: Revised and Expanded. Yale University Press. p. 424. ISBN   978-0300195736.
  6. Geiser, Linda; McCune, Bruce (2009). Macrolichens of the Pacific Northwest. Oregon State University Press. p. 448. ISBN   9780870715655.
  7. "Stephen Sharnoff". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 28 July 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2022.
  8. Yuskavitch, Jim. "Does the Douglas Fir Tree Deserve Its Own Monument?". Sierra. The Sierra Club. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  9. "Douglas-Fir National Monument". Friends of Douglas-Fir National Monument. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  10. Peaslee, Claire (1 January 2015). "Stephen Sharnoff Shares the Secrets of the Lichen World". Bay Nature magazine. Retrieved 29 August 2022.