Research and art-science projects

Complex individuality

Lichens serve as a powerful metaphor for our interconnected world, reflecting the relationships that define our societies. Lichens are composed of a symbiotic union between fungi and photosynthetic partners, two completely different organisms. They physically depend on each other in a similar way our world is woven together by countless interdependencies among people, ecosystems, and nations. Like the individual components of lichens, which rely on each other for survival, humanity and the natural world are bound together in a delicate balance. Alone is not an option. Here we explore lichens as a metaphor for connections through an art-science collaboration.

Collaboration with with Suzette Bousema, funded through the VU Connect World Societal Impact Award.

Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity patterns

Cryptogam functional traits as predictors of associated biodiversity
Mosses and lichens (cryptogams) are home to diverse microbial and invertebrate communities. For vascular plants, we know that their traits are important factors influencing their associated microbiomes and invertebrates, but we don’t know if the same traits are also important for cryptogam-associated biodiversity. Here we use Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity as a model system to test how cryptogams drive associated biodiversity. We use measurements of cryptogam physiochemical traits in combination with microarthropod counts and metabarcoding of 16S, 18S and ITS biomarkers to test which cryptogam traits could be used as predictors for Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity. This will not only inform the establishment of new Antarctic Specially Protected Areas, but also form a framework on trait-biodiversity relationships for non-vascular plants.

Bryosphere biodiversity and functioning in relation to water availability and nitrogen inputs
Water and nutrient availability are the two main limiting factors for Antarctic terrestrial biodiversity. Here we used a sampling scheme that combined both, to test how they influence moss-associated biodiversity and nitrogen fixation rates. We used a combination of moss functional traits measurements, microarthropod counts, metabarcoding of 16S, 18S and ITS biomarkers and nitrogen fixation measurements using 15N-N2, to quantify multi-kingdom biodiversity and functioning in wet and dry moss mats in nutrient rich and nutrient poor environments.

Vegetation types shape microarthropod communities
Primary producers play a fundamental role in shaping terrestrial biodiversity. However, most of our understanding derives from vascular plants, while the role of other primary producers such as mosses and lichens is poorly studied. Mosses, lichens and algae (collectively known as cryptogams) are the dominant primary producers in Antarctica, where they also host a large abundance and biodiversity of associated microarthropods. This study investigates the role of 29 cryptogam species, via their functional traits, in shaping microarthropod abundance and diversity patterns across three sites in the maritime Antarctic.

Bacterial communities of lichens and mosses, and nitrogen fixation in a warming climate

Climate warming in sub-Arctic regions leads to shifts in plant communities and retreating glaciers. Mosses and lichens contribute to important ecosystem processes in these environments, including nitrogen fixation via their microbiome. Here we assessed the extent to which long-term warming affects bacterial communities and nitrogen fixation associated with the lichen Cetraria islandica and the moss Racomitrium lanuginosum. These species are among the most common lichen and moss species in Iceland, respectively. We showed that long-term warming affects the structure and composition of the bacterial community associated with C. islandica and that this change is partly mediated via changes in the plant community. The same is true for the bacterial communities associated with R. lanuginosum, and the potential for nitrogen fixation is negatively affected by warming, potentially due to warming-induced decrease in nitrogen-fixing taxa.

Klarenberg, I.J., Keuschnig, C., Warshan, D., Jónsdóttir, I.S., Vilhelmsson, O. 2020. The Total and Active Bacterial Community of the Chlorolichen Cetraria islandica and Its Response to Long-Term Warming in Sub-Arctic Tundra, Frontiers in Microbiology 11 (3299)

Klarenberg, I.J., Keuschnig, C., Russi Colmenares, A.J., Warshan, D., Jungblut, A.D., Jónsdóttir, I.S. and Vilhelmsson, O. 2022. Long-term warming effects on the microbiome and nifH gene abundance of a common moss species in sub-Arctic tundra. New Phytologist, 234: 2044-2056

The second project was to evaluate the extent to which bacterial communities of two common Racomitrium species and the underlying soil as well as the moss-associated nitrogen fixation change during primary succession and whether these changes are related to changes in moss functional traits. Soil bacterial communities changed to a lesser extent with time since deglaciation than moss-associated bacterial communities. And both moss- and soil bacterial community structure were linked to moss functional traits.

Klarenberg, I.J., Keuschnig, C., Salazar, A., Benning, L.G., and Vilhelmsson, O. 2023. Moss and Underlying Soil Bacterial Community Structures are Linked to Moss Functional Traits Ecosphere 14(3): e4447

All publications

de Jonge, I.K., Convey, P., Klarenberg, I.J., Cornelissen, J.H.C. and Bokhorst, S. (2025), Flexible or fortified? How lichens balance defence strategies across climatic harshness gradients. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20380

Klarenberg, I.J., Keuschnig, C., Salazar, A., Benning, L.G., Vilhelmsson, O. (2023) Moss and underlying soil bacterial community structures are linked to moss functional traits. Ecosphere 14 (3), https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4447

Hollister, R.D., Elphinstone, C., Henry, G.H., Bjorkman, A.D., Klanderud, K., Björk, R.G., Björkman, M.P., Bokhorst, S., Carbognani, M., Cooper, E.J., Dorrepaal, E., Elmendorf, S.C., Fetcher, N., Gallois, E.C., Guðmundsson, J., Healey, N.C., Jónsdóttir, I.S., Klarenberg, I.J., Oberbauer, S.F., Macek, P., May, J.L., Mereghetti, A.M., Molau, U., Petraglia, A., Rinnan, R., Rixen, C., Wookey, P.A. (2022) A review of open top chamber (OTC) performance across the ITEX Network. Arctic Science 9 (2), 331-334; https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0030

Piatkowski, B.T., Carper, D.L., Carrell, A.C., Chen, I.A., Clum, A., Daum, C., Eloe-Fadrosh, E.A., Gilbert, D., Granath, G., Huntemann, M., Jawdy, S.S., Klarenberg, I.J., Kostka, J.E., Kyrpides, N.C., Lawrence, T.J., Mukherjee, S., Nilsson, M.B., Palaniappan, K., Pelletier, D.A., Pennacchio, C., Reddy, T.B.K., Roux, S., Shaw, A.J., Warshan, D., Živković, T., Weston, D.J. (2022) Draft metagenome sequences of the Sphagnum (Peat moss) microbiome from ambient and warmed environments across europe. Microbiology resource announcements 11 (10); https://doi.org/10.1128/mra.00400-22

Klarenberg, I.J., Russi-Colmenares, A.J., Keuschnig, C., Warshan, D., Jungblut, A.D., Jónsdóttir, I.S., and O. Vilhelmsson (2022) Long-term warming effects on the microbiome and nifH gene abundance of a common moss species in sub-Arctic tundra. New Phytologist 234(6), 2044-2056; https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.17837

Kopacz, N., Csuka, J., Baqué, M., Iakubivskyi, I., Guðlaugardóttir, H., Klarenberg, I.J., Ahmed, M., Zetterlind, A., Singh, A., ten Kate, I.L., Hellebrand, E., Stockwell, B.R., Stefánsson, Á.B., Vilhelmsson, O., Neubeck, A., Schnürer, A., Geppert, W. (2022) A study in blue: secondary copper-rich minerals and their associated bacterial diversity in Icelandic lava tubes. Earth and Space Science 9 (5); https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EA002234

Klarenberg, I.J., Keuschnig, C., Warshan, D., Jónsdóttir, I.S. and O. Vilhelmsson (2020) The total and active bacterial community of the chlorolichen Cetraria islandica and its response to long-term warming in sub-Arctic tundra. Frontiers in Microbiology 11, 3299; https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.540404

Gowers, G.F., Vince, O., Charles, J., Klarenberg, I., Ellis, T. and A. Edwards (2019) Entirely Off-Grid and Solar-Powered DNA Sequencing of Microbial Communities during an Ice Cap Traverse Expedition. Genes 2019, 10(11), 902; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10110902