Vegetation of the Canary Islands

ISBN-13: 9783030084110 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 429 str.

Marcelino J. del Arco Aguilar; Octavio Rodriguez Delgado

Spis treści

1. Introduction.- 2. Geographic framework.- 3. Climate. 3.1. Anticyclonic Weather.- 3.2. Saharan Weather.- 3.3. Disturbed Weather.- 4. Bioclimate.- 4.1. Bioclimatic Belts.- 4.2. Bioclimatic Belts in the Canary Islands.- 4.3. Bioclimographs.- 5. Biogeography.- 5.1. Colonization.- 5.2. Biogeographic Classification.- 6. Other Floristic Considerations.- 6.1. Non-Vascular Flora.- 6.2. Vascular Flora.- 7. Vegetation of the Canary Islands.- 7.1. An Overview.- 7.2. Current Vegetation.- 7.3. Potential Natural Vegetation.- 7.4. Characteristic Species of the Most Representative Classes of the Climatophilous Vegetation.- 8. Change in the Natural Landscape Through Human Influence.- 8.1. Uses and Degradation of the Plant Cover by the Aboriginal Population.- 8.2. The Intense Landscape Disturbance and Transformation after the Conquest.- 8.3. Current Climate Change.- 9. Conservation Status of Flora and Vegetation.- 9.1. Protection of Natural Reserves.- 9.2. Botanical Gardens, Seed and Germoplasm Banks and Nurseries.- 9.3. Invasive Plants.- Appendix 1.- Appendix 2.- Appendix 3.- Appendix 4.- Index. 

Blurb

This book describes the vegetation of the Canary Islands for students and scholars of nature. It shows the great floristic and vegetation biodiversity of these Islands as related to their geology and bioclimatology and emphasizes that the Islands constitute natural laboratories for studies on their flora, vegetation, plant evolution and ecology.

Chapters on geography, climate and bioclimate provide the physical framework for characterizing the plant communities, according to a world bioclimatic classification, and relate them in their corresponding bioclimatic belts within the Mediterranean macrobioclimate. The biogeography chapter covers the plant colonization of the archipelago in a variable geological and paleo-climatic framework, since the first emergence of the archipelago and its surroundings. The possible vectors of colonization and the main sources of the flora are pointed out. The Canarian-Madeiran Subregion of the Mediterranean Region is characterized in terms of its geographic, bioclimatic, floristic and vegetation features. Its plant biodiversity and endemism are highlighted.

The book’s main focus is on the vegetation of the Islands: a general description of the main potential communities along an altitudinal transect is followed by descriptions of the current vegetation units. Details are given on the most representative endemic potential natural communities and illustrated by photographs, diagrams and illustrative maps of the potential natural vegetation of each Island.

The book also assesses anthropogenic effects on the natural landscape, the role of invasive plants and the expected impact of climate change on flora and vegetation. The conservation status of the flora and vegetation of the Islands is evaluated.

Four appendixes, including a syntaxonomical scheme, a brief history of botanical studies and explorations, ethnobotanical notes and a selected listing of literature complete the book.