Equilibrium of vegetation and climate at the European rear edge. A reference for climate change planning in mountainous Mediterranean regions

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

Mediterranean mountains harbour some of Europe's highest floristic richness. This is accounted for largely by the mesoclimatic variety in these areas, along with the co-occurrence of a small area of Eurosiberian, Boreal and Mediterranean species, and those of Tertiary Subtropical origin. Throughout the twenty-first century, we are likely to witness a climate change-related modification of the biogeographic scenario in these mountains, and there is therefore a need for accurate climate regionalisations to serve as a reference of the abundance and distribution of species and communities, particularly those of a relictic nature. This paper presents an objective mapping method focussing on climate regions in a mountain range. The procedure was tested in the Cordillera Central Mountains of the Iberian Peninsula, in the western Mediterranean, one of the ranges occupying the largest area of the Mediterranean Basin. This regionalisation is based upon multivariate analyses and upon detailed cartography employing 27 climatic variables. We used spatial interpolation of data based on geographic information. We detected high climatic diversity in the mountain range studied. We identified 13 climatic regions, all of which form a varying mosaic throughout the annual temperature and rainfall cycle. This heterogeneity results from two geographically opposed gradients. The first one is the Mediterranean-Euro-Siberian variation of the mountain range. The second gradient involves the degree of oceanicity, which is negatively related to distance from the Atlantic Ocean. The existing correlation between the climatic regions detected and the flora existing therein enables the results to be situated within the projected trends of global warming, and their biogeographic and ecological consequences to be analysed.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftInternational Journal of Biometeorology
Jahrgang55
Ausgabenummer3
Seiten (von - bis)285-301
Anzahl der Seiten17
ISSN0020-7128
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 05.2011
Extern publiziertJa

    Fachgebiete

  • Climate, Cordillera Central Mountains of the Iberian Peninsula, Geographic factors, Global warming, Mediterranean flora, Multivariate regression with climatic data
  • Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Forschende

  1. Paul Niklas Brosien

Publikationen

  1. Chancen erkennen und nutzen
  2. Fragrance allergens in household detergents
  3. Thema: Protest Policing – Eine Bestandsaufnahme
  4. PowerPoint. Präsentieren in Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft
  5. Reflexiver Eurozentrismus
  6. Heterotrophic cultivation of Galdieria sulphuraria under non-sterile conditions in digestate and hydrolyzed straw
  7. Wie man sich vor UV-Strahlung schützt.
  8. Communal environmental protection and conservation
  9. Homogene und heterogene Teilnahmeeffekte des Hamburger Kombilohnmodells
  10. Reform der Abschlussprüfung
  11. Damages after deregulation - dynamic effects in the German motor vehicle insurance industry
  12. Die Ordnung des Generischen
  13. Der Mauern Sturzgeburt
  14. Der Lehrservice als Förderer innovativer Lehrentwicklung
  15. Wertbeitrag des Human Resource Managements aus ökonomischer Sicht
  16. Was ist am Lehrerberuf wirklich belastend?
  17. Review: Anonymous agencies, backstreet businesses and covert collectives: Rethinking organizations in the 21st century (by Scott C. R. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013. 272 pp. ISBN 9780804781381.)
  18. Picturing the World for Children: Early Nineteenth-Century Images of Foreign Nations
  19. Freundschaft als Resilienzfaktor
  20. International trends in public perceptions of climate change over the past quarter century
  21. Variability in leaf traits reveals contrasting strategies between forest and grassland woody communities across southern Brazil
  22. Managerial insights
  23. Über Hinterbühnen und Fauxpas
  24. Connecting Selves with Kitkitdizze, the Bio-Region, and the World at Large
  25. Literarische Intellektualität in der Mediengesellschaft
  26. Musik Computer Tanz