Scientists Francisco Gasulla, Leonardo Casano and Alfredo Guéra, observed the lichen's metabolic response when placed in dark conditions. The light harvesting complex (LHC) inside the chloroplasts of Lichen is activated when subjected to darkness.  Gasulla, Casano and Guéra, noticed that this increase in LHC activity caused PS II and the PQ pool within lichen to decrease, indicating the initiation of chlororespiration.
Immunodetection analysis was used to determine the amount of LHC molecules inside lichen in a dark environment, and a luminous environment. By determining the amount of LHC within the chloroplast, scientists were able to notice the reduction in PS II activity. This reduction was caused by a loss in excitation energy in the PS II ETC, which then stimulated an incline in chlororespiratory pathways. Gasulla, Casano and Guéra, gathered this result, when both light-adapted and dark-adapted lichen were placed in darkness. They found that the level of LHC molecules in dark-adapted lichen had doubled compared to light adapted lichen. It was also noted that the chlororespiratory ETCs were triggered at a much earlier time in dark-adapted lichen, than compared to light-adapted lichen. This resulted in a faster metabolic rate and chemical synthesis response in dark-adapted lichen due to chlororespiration.