Floral endemism at sunset

Floral endemism... more

by Guido Montanes Castillo

Title

Floral endemism at sunset

Artist

Guido Montanes Castillo

Medium

Photograph

Description

Floral endemism
Endemism living more than 3000 metros hight
Sierra Nevada National Park
Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the set of the Betic, namely Penibetic systems. It is located in Andalusia, Spain, spreading to the central-east of the province of Granada and part of the southwest of the province of Almeria. In 1986 he was declared "Biosphere Reserve" by UNESCO in 1999 and much of its territory was declared a National Park by its botanical values, landscape and natural. It is the highest-altitude mountain range of western Europe after the Alps. Its maximum altitude is reached in the Mulhacen peak, at 3,482 meters.
The Sierra Nevada, together with the Betic, was formed during the Alpine orogeny in the Tertiary. Because of its isolation and altitude, since the end of the W�rm glaciation has been solid as a refuge for many endemic plants and improper Mediterranean latitudes in which it is situated, according to the Ministry of Environment of Spain, January 66 endemic vascular plant species and 80 other animal species native to the area.
After the end of the last ice age, the peculiar situation of Sierra Nevada allowed it would become a haven for a large number of endemic species and improper northern latitudes. Are known, according to the Ministry of Environment of Spain, 66 endemic vascular plant species, representing the greatest biodiversity of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe. The total number of higher plants is around 2,100, representing a quarter of all known species in Spain and the fifth of Europe.
The Cortijuela Botanical Garden, located in the foothills of Trevenque at about 1600 meters above sea level, its functions are the protection, conservation, generation and investigation of the flora of this mountain especially its nearly 100 vulnerable, threatened or critically endangered. In 2007 we have started plantations Pedraza Hoya Botanical Center located about 1980 meters above sea level, and about 4 miles from Pradollano, as a conservation center height flora sierra.4 In the "Hole of the Mora �about 2500 meters altitude, from 1965, is the University Botanical Garden Sierra Nevada, specializing in all endemic to the Sierra Nevada.
Causes of Biodiversity
Sierra Nevada pine endemic to the mountains subb�ticas and present in Sierra Nevada.
The origin of the unusual number of endemic species present in the solid must be mounted in order to make it now almost two million years. With the end of this age and the coming of the Quaternary period, the climate in Europe suffered a gradual cooling that allowed plant species northern and arctic latitudes moving progressively occupy southern Europe and much of the interior and highlands of the Iberian Peninsula. The end of the W�rm Glaciation and Holocene arrival marked the beginning of a gradual increase in temperature, and these northern species found refuge in the heights of the Sierra Nevada, acanton�ndose in the massif and gradually adapting to the climate characteristics the area, as the summer drought. Thus, many species have developed or even characteristics have been developed independently due to their isolation, thus counting a large number of endemic species in the solid than those in countries such as Belgium, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Sweden , Denmark, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland in conjunto.5
Examples of endemism are: Real chamomile (Artemis granatensis), Sierra Nevada daffodil (Narcissus nevadensis) or the star of the snows (Plantago nivalis), the latter being one of the great symbols of the bulk, equivalent to the Pyrenees or edelweiss the Alps. In addition, Sierra Nevada are also present that are endemic species Betic System or are present in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.

Uploaded

May 22nd, 2013