Lab Members: Jutta Buschbom

Jutta Buschbom (Graduate Student)

Committee on Evolutionary Biology University of Chicago and
Botany Department, Field Museum of Natural History

Education: 
“Diplom” (M.S.), 1995
Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel (FRG) and
Julius-Maximilians University, Würzburg (FRG)

Awards: 
1999. University of Chicago, Hinds Fund award.

Photo: Jutta Buschbom
Porpidia melinodes (orange) and Rhizocarpon geographicum (greenish) thalli on an exposed rocksurface in Northern Sweden (Kärkevagge, Abisko).

Research Interests: 
Ecology, systematics, population biology and genetics, especially of lichenized ascomycetes and their symbiontic algae and cyanobacteria (= lichens).

Current Research: 
I work on a phylogeny of the lichen-forming ascomycete genus Porpidia and related allies. The species of Porpidia and their symbiontic green alga of the genus Trebouxia form crustose, often brightly colored thalli on silicous rock surfaces in the temperate to arctic zones. The genus includes several pairs of sister taxa that differ primarily in their reproductive modes: one taxon reproduces sexually, the other asexually. The genus offers an excellent opportunity to investigate the advantages (and disadvantages) of sexual versus asexual reproduction. The phylogenetic hypothesis will be based on molecular (DNA sequences of the nuclear large subunit ribosomal RNA gene), anatomical, morphological and chemical (secondary compounds) data. It will lay the foundation for comparative analyses of the patterns and rates of evolution in the sister taxa showing contrasting reproductive modes.

Publications: 
Buschbom, J. and Kappen, L. (1998): The role of microclimate for the lichen vegetation pattern on rock surfaces in the Subarctic. Sauteria 9: 79-94.

Buschbom, J. and Kappen, L. (1996): The role of microclimate for the community pattern on rock surfaces in the Subarctic (Poster). in: The Third Symposium IAL3: Progress and Problems in Lichenology in the Nineties, Salzburg, Austria 1-7 September 1996 (Abstracts). p. 148.

Zimmer, D.; Buschbom, J. and Abel, H. (1995): Untersuchungen zur Luftqualität mit epiphytischen Flechten als Bioindikatoren im Rahmen der Umweltverträglich-keitsuntersuchung (UVU) zur Erweiterung der thermischen Restabfallbehan-dlungsanlage der Fa. Edelhoff Entsorgung Nord GmbH & Co. bei Bramsche-Achmer. Report to the University of Osnabrück (FRG). 66 ps.