Zuzana Ferencova

Jardín Botánico Atlántico de Gijón

Alternaria conidia have high allergenic potential and they can trigger important respiratory diseases. Due to that and to their extensive detection period, airborne Alternaria spores are considered as a relevant airborne allergenic particle. Several studies have been developed in order to predict the human exposure to this aeroallergen and to preve...

La Red Palinológica de la Comunidad de Madrid, Red PALINOCAM, es un sistema de vigilancia ambiental de la Dirección General de Salud Pública. Sus funciones son analizar, cuantificar y predecir niveles de polen en el aire de nuestra comunidad, para ayudar a las personas alérgicas y/o asmáticas y a los profesionales sanitarios en el abordaje de dicha...

Although many microorganisms are ubiquitously present in the air, airborne microbial communities have been much less characterized than those in soil or aquatic environments. Besides its ecological importance, detection and monitoring of the wide diversity of these aerosolized microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi and pollen) is relevant for und...

The effect of height on pollen concentration is not well documented and little is known about the near-ground vertical profile of airborne pollen. This is important as most measuring stations are on roofs, but patient exposure is at ground level. Our study used a big data approach to estimate the near-ground vertical profile of pollen concentration...

Hypotrachyna is a speciose genus of primarily tropical and oceanic lichen-forming fungi. It includes species with distinct distribution patterns, such as pantropical, restricted and disjunct species. We used a dataset of mitochondrial SSU, nuclear ITS and LSU ribosomal DNA from 89 specimens to study the historical biogeography of the genus. We empl...

Extraction of DNA from lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi: a low-cost fast protocol using Chelex - Volume 49 Issue 5 - Zuzana Ferencova, Víctor J. Rico, David L. Hawksworth

Pollen, fungi, and bacteria are the main microscopic biological entities present in outdoor air, causing allergy symptoms and disease transmission and having a significant role in atmosphere dynamics. Despite their relevance, a method for monitoring simultaneously these biological particles in metropolitan environments has not yet been developed. H...

So far, the study of the biological particles in the air we breathe has been mainly directed at knowing and controlling pollen and spores, aeroallergens with a well-known health impact., It has been recently suggested that the air is an ecosystem in itself, and that it probably has its own biota, which would be composed mainly of viruses, bacteria,...

The status and application of the generic name Aspidelia - Volume 47 Issue 3 - Zuzana Ferencova, David L. Hawksworth, Ana Crespo

The importance of the anatomy and fine morphology of reproductive structures for the systematics of the family Parmeliaceae is highlighted by the new genus Notoparmelia, described here for Australasian species of Parmelia. These species were known to form a monophyletic lineage but correlated characters for its delimitation were lacking. A major ch...

Monographs are fundamental for progress in systematic botany. They are the vehicles for circumscribing and naming taxa, determining distributions and ecology, assessing relationships for formal classification, and interpreting long-term and short-term dimensions of the evolutionary process. Despite their importance, fewer monographs are now being p...

Monographs are fundamental for progress in systematic botany. They are the vehicles for circumscribing and naming taxa, determining distributions and ecology, assessing relationships for formal classification, and interpreting long–term and short–term dimensions of the evolutionary process. Despite their importance, fewer monographs are now being p...

Parmelioid lichens are a diverse and ubiquitous group of foliose lichens. Generic delimitation in parmelioid lichens has been in a state of flux since the late 1960s with the segregation of the large, heterogeneous genus Parmelia into numerous smaller genera. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have demonstrated that some of these new genera were...

Parmelioid lichens are a diverse and ubiquitous group of foliose lichens. Generic delimitation in parmelioid lichens has been in a state of flux since the late 1960s with the segregation of the large, heterogeneous genus Parmelia into numerous smaller genera. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies have demonstrated that some of these new genera were...

Two asexual reproductive strategies of the common lichen Pseudevernia furfuracea are described. Although the species propagates mainly by isidia, some specimens also show the development of soralia. Morphological, chemical and molecular analyses were performed on three such sorediate specimens from the Canary Islands, Morocco and Turkey. Maximum pa...

Parmelioid lichens form the largest monophyletic group within the Parmeliaceae, a family distributed worldwide. The genus Parmelina was described by Hale (1976a)33. Hale , M. E. Jr. 1976a. A monograph of the lichen genus Parmelina Hale (Parmeliaceae). Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, 33: 1–60. View all references accommodating species from bot...

Biogeographical studies of lichens used to be complicated because of the large distribution ranges of many species. Molecular systematics has revitalized lichen biogeography by improving species delimitation and providing better information about species range limitations. This study focuses on the major clade of tropical parmelioid lichens, which...