The High Mountain Area of Northwestern Spain: The Cantabrian Range, the Galician-Leonese Mountains and the Bierzo Trench

Abstract

The Cantabrian Range, the Galician-Leonese mountains and the Bierzo trench comprise a territory in the north of the Iberian Peninsula on a wide variety of rocks and substrates and with significant climatic biodiversity. The area is covered by the two macrobioclimates existing in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands: Mediterranean and Temperate, and is part of the Eurosiberian and Mediterranean biogeographical regions This variability in geology, soil and bioclimate has given rise to a highly diverse vegetation that we synthesise as follows. In the Cantabrian Range: (1) Cryorotemperate grasslands. (2) Oro-cryorotemperate vegetation on rock fields and screes. (3) Supra-orotemperate grasslands and high-mountain pastures. (4) Cantabrian high-mountain scrubland. (5) Peat-bog vegetation. (6) Forests and woodlands dominated by Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea, Betula celtiberica, Quercus orocantabrica, Quercus rotundifolia, Quercus pyrenaica, Quercus faginea, Juniperus thurifera, Ilex aquifolium, Tilia platyphyllos and Tilia cordata, oro-Cantabrian acer woods with ash, and riparian forests and woodlands. (7) Meso-supratemperate scrublands (broom communities, spiny scrublands, heathlands, broom scrublands). (8) Meso-supratemperate meadows and grasslands. (9) Other vegetation types (aquatic vegetation, herbaceous ruderal vegetation, and others).

In the Galician-Leonese mountains and Bierzo trench: (1) High mountain vegetation (vegetation on rock fields and scree, supra-oromediteranean and temperate submediterranean scrublands and grasslands and grasslands of Nardus stricta. (2) Forest and woodland dominated by Betula celtiberica, Quercus orocantabrica, Quercus rotundifolia, Quercus pyrenaica, and riparian forests and woodlands. (3) Meso-supramediterranean and supratemperate submediterranean scrublands (broom communities, spiny nanoshrublands, heathlands and other types of scrubland). (4) Meso-supramediterranean meadows and grasslands. (5) Other vegetation types (aquatic vegetation, meso-supramediterranean rock field vegetation, annual grasslands and herbaceous ruderal vegetation and others).