Steve Selva | |
---|---|
Born | 1948 |
Alma mater | California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (1967–1972); Iowa State University (1972–1976) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Lichenology |
Institutions | University of Maine at Fort Kent |
Steven B. Selva (born 1948) is Professor Emeritus of Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, a lichenologist, and curator of UMFK's lichen herbarium. Selva is an expert on stubble lichens, called so because their millimeter-high stalks resemble beard stubble.
Selva attended California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California, earning bachelor's degrees in biology and botany. He continued his education at Iowa State University in Ames where he earned his PhD in botany. His dissertation focused on establishing biostratigraphic units based on freshwater diatoms preserved in the soil of the Ogallala Aquifer. During the course of his research, Selva discovered seven new species of diatoms. [1]
In 1976, Selva began his teaching career at the University of Maine at Fort Kent where he teaches courses in environmental studies, dendrology, general botany, plant taxonomy, plant physiology, and lichenology. In 1983, Selva spent seven months in Ottawa studying the lichens of Aroostook County, Maine (where UMFK is located) with Irwin Murray Brodo. [2]
Though the University of Maine at Fort Kent does not require research as a condition of employment, Selva actively pursues many ongoing lichen research programs, receiving grants from organizations such as the Appalachian Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy, the New Brunswick Museum, the National Geographic Society, and the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station. [2] The focus of his lichenological research centers on the use of stubble lichens as environmental indicators, both in reference to the age of a forest and its level of pollution. [3] Selva retired in 2013 [4] and was elected Professor Emeritus by the UMFK faculty following his retirement. He continues to work with the lichen herbarium on the UMFK campus.
Housed in Cyr Hall of the University of Maine at Fort Kent's campus, Selva's lichen herbarium is one of the largest in the world. It contains around 60,000 specimens of multiple varieties of lichens, including the largest collection of stubble lichens in North America as well as the largest collection of old growth forest lichens in the northeastern United States. [5]
Beginning in 2001, Selva and colleague/former student Ray Albert began uploading the contents of the lichen herbarium online at the University of Maine at Fort Kent's Lichen Research Program. The database contains specific information on the collection location, habitat information, and the substrate or base on which the lichens were found. Eventually Selva and Albert hope to include microscope images of each specimen along with the latitude and longitude of where they were collected. [6] [7]
Selva holds the following fellowships, honors, and memberships: [2]
Selva has published the following lichenological reports: [8]
Species published by Selva include Chaenothecopsis edbergii , Phaeocalicium matthewsianum , Sphinctrina benmargana , and Stenocybe flexuosa .
Lichenology is the branch of mycology that studies the lichens, symbiotic organisms made up of an intimate symbiotic association of a microscopic alga with a filamentous fungus. Lichens are chiefly characterized by this symbiosis.
Cape Breton Highlands National Park is a Canadian national park on northern Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The park was the first national park in the Atlantic provinces of Canada and covers an area of 948 square kilometres (366 sq mi). It is one of 42 in Canada's system of national parks.
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Pink Mountain Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada.
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Erioderma pedicellatum is a medium-sized, foliose lichen in the family Pannariaceae, commonly called the boreal felt lichen. It grows on trees in damp boreal forests along the Atlantic coast in Canada, as well as in southcentral Alaska and in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
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Fraxinus profunda, the pumpkin ash, is a species of ash (Fraxinus) native to eastern North America, where it has a scattered distribution on the Atlantic coastal plain and interior lowland river valleys from the Lake Erie basin in Ontario and New York west to Illinois, southwest to Missouri and southeast to northern Florida. It grows in bottomland habitats, such as swamps, floodplains and riverbanks. It is threatened by the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect which has caused widespread destruction of ash trees in eastern North America.
Hemphillia glandulosa, the warty jumping-slug, is a species of air-breathing land slug, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Binneyidae.
Gonidea angulata, the western ridged mussel or Rocky Mountain ridged mussel, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. It is the only species in the genus Gonidea.
The Caliciaceae are a family of mostly lichen-forming fungi belonging to the class Lecanoromycetes in the division Ascomycota. Although the family has had its classification changed several times throughout its taxonomic history, the use of modern molecular phylogenetic methods have helped to establish its current placement in the order Caliciales. Caliciaceae contains 39 genera and about 670 species. The largest genus is Buellia, with around 300 species; there are more than a dozen genera that contain only a single species.
The Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, based in Toronto, Ontario, is the Canadian affiliate of the Wildlife Conservation Society International (WCS), incorporated as a conservation organization in Canada in July 2004. WCS Canada currently runs conservation projects across six key regions in Canada led by its staff of field-based scientists.
The boreal woodland caribou, also known as Eastern woodland caribou, boreal forest caribou and forest-dwelling caribou, is a North American subspecies of reindeer found primarily in Canada with small populations in the United States. Unlike the Porcupine caribou and barren-ground caribou, boreal woodland caribou are primarily sedentary.
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Elke Mackenzie, born Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, was a British polar explorer and botanist who specialized in the field of lichenology. Beginning her education in Edinburgh, Scotland, Mackenzie later pursued botany at Edinburgh University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1933 and a Doctor of Science in 1942. In the two years she was involved in Operation Tabarin, a covert World War II mission to Antarctica, she identified and documented many lichen species, several of them previously unknown to science.
Leif Tibell is a Swedish lichenologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Uppsala. He is known for his expertise on calicioid lichens. He was awarded the Acharius Medal in 2012 for lifetime achievements in lichenology.
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