Dr Brian Coppins

Dr Brian Coppins, Research Associate Lichenology

Brian is RBGE's senior lichenologist with research interests in the taxonomy and biogeography of north-west European lichens, and with particular expertise in the genus Micarea.

Brian's research on British lichens focusses on the identification of difficult crustose species (especially sterile crusts), using morphological and chemical characters. His academic interests are, however, wide-ranging: e.g. including the South-East Asian Thelotremataceae, Lobarion epiphytes in the Eastern Carpathians, lichen ecology in native Scottish woodlands, and comprising expeditions to and species inventory for Borneo and Chile.

Brian's taxonomic expertise is applied in UK biodiversity conservation, towards which he contributes specialist advice and maintains key resourses, e.g. the British Lichen Checklist and Taxon Dictionary, the Synonym List and the UK Conservation Evaluation. In addition Brian maintains the BLS catalogue of unpublished 'Grey Literature', e.g. site and species accounts, conservation reports etc.

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