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Altitudinal Patterns and Changes in the Composition of High Mountain Plant Communities

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The Landscape of the Sierra Nevada

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Abstract

Sierra Nevada, comprising 2348 vascular flora taxa (including 95 endemic taxa) is considered one of the most important plant hotspots within the Mediterranean region. Sierra Nevada presents 362 taxa inhabiting the alpine area (ca. 242 km2), 75 endemic species (62 endemic plus 13 sub-endemic) among them, constituting ca. 79% of the endemism of the entire area. This high-mountain has preserved many species, allowing the current presence of many artic-alpine species, including twelve cold-adapted species with their southernmost limit here. There are 23 nano-hotspots, most of them occurring at the highest altitude, at the coldest parts. Altogether, they host 30% of the Baetic endemic flora in just 0.07% of the area. Plant communities are also original, and they are composed of a mixture of Alpine and Mediterranean species. Climate change is strongly impacting alpine biota leading to an adaptation to the new conditions. When this adaptation capacity is overcome species are forced to migrate to avoid extinction. Some responses are already noticeable in alpine areas, such as: phenological changes, altitudinal movements, increasing competition and hybridization, and changes in plant assemblages. Direct impact related to human activities such as livestock grazing, use of fire to manage alpine pasturelands, mountain agriculture, outdoor activities, and infrastructure construction have additive effects to climate change, and altogether they can exacerbate negative changes. Monitoring, evaluating, and understanding the effect of global change in the Mediterranean mountains is a top priority. We offer guidelines to orient the conservation agenda at Sierra Nevada: To (i) establish an early warning indicators system, (ii) preserve plant species and habitats, (iii) preserve threatened plant species ex situ, (iv) promote adaptive management measures, (v) evaluate outdoor recreation activities, and (vi) control and regulate activities.

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Acknowledgements

To all the researchers and naturalists that have been studying the Sierra Nevada during the last 150 years. Project B1-RNM-163-UGR18-Programa Operativo FEDER, 2018 partially funded this research. The Direction and the staff of the National Park of Sierra Nevada provided permissions and greatly assisted the fieldwork. The staff of the Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua de Andalucía collaborated in some ongoing and past projects that supported this chapter. GLORIA coordination team at the University of Vienna established the permanent plots to follow the changes in plant communities, and it still supports and gives technical advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Juan Lorite, Julio Peñas, Katy Rondinel-Mendoza, Rosa Fernandez-Calzado & Eva Cañadas

  2. Interuniversity Institute for Earth System Research, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Juan Lorite

  3. GLORIA Coordination, Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Andrea Lamprecht

  4. GLORIA coordination, Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna & Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Andrea Lamprecht

  5. Department of Ecology and Multidisciplinary, Institute for Environment Studies Ramon Margalef, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    Blas Benito

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  1. Juan Lorite
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Correspondence to Juan Lorite .

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  1. Department of Ecology, University of Granada, Granada, Spain

    Regino Zamora

  2. Department of Geography, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Marc Oliva

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Lorite, J. et al. (2022). Altitudinal Patterns and Changes in the Composition of High Mountain Plant Communities. In: Zamora, R., Oliva, M. (eds) The Landscape of the Sierra Nevada. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94219-9_11

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