Lichen Population

Lichen population monitoring is crucial for assessing environmental health and understanding ecological processes, with epiphytic lichens serving as key bioindicators. Current research focuses on automating lichen analysis using image processing techniques, including instance and semantic segmentation, and machine learning algorithms like Support Vector Machines and Random Forests, to improve efficiency and reduce observer bias in measuring lichen size, cover, and condition. These advancements offer significant improvements in the speed and accuracy of lichen population assessments, enabling more comprehensive ecological studies and more effective environmental monitoring.