Last week, the 10th Symposium of the International Association for Lichenology (IAL10) took place in Trieste, Italy, from 26 to 31 July 2026, organised by the International Association for Lichenology, the University of Trieste’s Department of Life Sciences and the Italian Lichenological Society.
Held once every four years, the symposium is an important event for the global lichenology community, and this edition proved more popular than ever, drawing over 350 participants from around the world – more than double the number originally expected.
Lichenology is a wonderfully niche field, but IAL10 showed just how far-reaching and collaborative the community is. Delegates travelled from every corner of the globe to discuss taxonomy, lichen-associated microorganisms, biodiversity and conservation, ecophysiology, environmental biomonitoring, and cultural heritage preservation.
Pensoft’s stand at IAL10
We were pleased to have our own stand at the symposium, where we showcased our journals in plant science and mycology, including:
- MycoKeys: publishes papers on the monophyletic kingdom Fungi containing taxonomic or ecological data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world with no limit to manuscript size;
- IMA Fungus: considers contributions from all areas of mycology expected to be of interest to the wider mycological community, from basic research to applications
- PhytoKeys: publishes papers in systematic Botany containing taxonomic/floristic data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
- Italian Botanist: publishes original research covering all fields of Botany in its wider sense, including Mycology, ranging from molecular to ecosystem studies
- Biodiversity Data Journal: publishes papers in biodiversity science containing taxonomic, floristic/faunistic, morphological, genomic, phylogenetic, ecological or environmental data on any taxon of any geological age from any part of the world
- Vegetation Classification and Survey: publishes original papers that develop new vegetation typologies as well as applied studies that use such typologies, for example, in vegetation mapping, ecosystem modelling, nature conservation, land use management or monitoring
It was a great opportunity to speak directly with researchers and students about publishing their work, and to reconnect with authors and editors already part of our community.
Talks that caught our attention
Among the many excellent presentations at IAL10, two in particular stood out to us:
Juri Nascimbene, a subject editor and author at MycoKeys and an author for Italian Botanist, Vegetation Classification and Survey, and Biodiversity Data Journal, presented on the historical lichen collections held at the University of Bologna’s herbarium (BOLO). His talk explored how these collections, some dating back to the work of Ulisse Aldrovandi in the sixteenth century, allow researchers to track species distributions across centuries.
Using material such as Antonio Bertoloni’s Hortus Siccus Florae Italicae, which contains 850 georeferenced lichen specimens, Nascimbene’s team has been able to trace the long-term presence of species such as Lobaria pulmonaria in the chestnut groves of the Northern Apennines, and the disappearance of cold-adapted species such as Alectoria ochroleuca from high-altitude sites.
It was a fascinating look at how historical herbaria can inform our understanding of global change today!
We also attended a talk by Martin Grube, a reviewer and author at MycoKeys, who challenged the common perception of lichens as slow-growing organisms. His presentation examined the hygroscopic movements lichens undergo as they take up and lose water, and the mechanical stresses this creates within their thalli.
Grube introduced tools for measuring these mechanical properties and discussed what they might reveal about the evolution and function of lichen structures, thus offering a compelling primer on comparative thallus mechanics.
A new special issue in MycoKeys
While at IAL10, we were pleased to announce a new special issue in MycoKeys: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference of the International Association for Lichenology (IAL10), edited by Mauro Tretiach, Fabio Candotto Carniel, and Lucia Muggia. The special issue will bring together original research articles and short communications covering the full breadth of lichen symbiosis research. We look forward to seeing the community’s latest work published there.
Celebrating the award winners
Congratulations to all of this year’s IAL10 award winners:
Best Posters
- Honorata Wacławek, “Phylogenetic insights into freshwater Gyalidea (Gomphillaceae, Graphidales) from the high Andes of Bolivia”
- Ariel Sebastián Udaeta Sanchez, “First axenic cultures of saxicolous lichens from Tucumán (NW Argentina): growth timelines and representation of under-studied neotropical lineages”
Best Flash Talks
- Ciaran Kelly, “Comparative genomic analyses of antimicrobial proteins encoded by lichen-forming fungi”
- Anna Pasinato, “The metabolic divide: fungal genomes reveal an unequal distribution of biosynthetic gene clusters”
Best Oral Presentations
- Victoria K., “Hidden cohabitants: metagenomic insights into global occurrence patterns of black fungi associated with lichens”
- Diego Garfias Gallegos, “Central metabolism and development are rewired in lichenized cyanobacteria”
Until next time
IAL10 was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the lichenology community, and we were delighted to meet so many authors from our journals in person. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our stand, attended a talk with us, or simply shared a conversation about lichens.
We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the Italian Lichenological Society and seeing you all again at the next symposium.
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