Tania Liñan Luna

UNIT 5: BIOGEOGRAPHY OF SPAIN

1. Diversity of the Spanish soils
The soil is the top level of the ground, which can support vegetation. It is the product
of biochemical processes and the physiological activity of living organisms. The soil is
composed of organic and inorganic material, including water and air, but with less oxygen
and more carbon.
The soils have a structure in layers. The A layer is the outer or more superficial. For
its part, the C layer is the base rock or bedrock, which can be more or less altered. Some
factors are involved in the soil formation, such as:
- The lithology; in other words, the characteristics of the bedrock, resulting in two main
groups of soils: alkaline, and acidic.
- The climate, whose role is very important, because a rainy climate produce the
leaching of the soil, reducing its amount of organic matter. - The slope, which has
influence on the degree of development of each soil: the high slope makes more
difficult the soil formation, because the slope causes the loss, by gravity, of part of the
material which can form it.
- The vegetation, which defends soils of erosion, and keeps their fertility and humidity.
- The anthropogenic action, which can improve or gets worse a soil, setting wildland
fires, breaking up vegetation, overexploiting it…
The soils can be zonal or non-zonal. The zonal soils are evolved, thanks to the climate, the
vegetation which is supported by the own soil, and the long time during which the soil has
been evolving. The non-zonal soils are very little evolved, so they depend much on the
lithological substrate or base rock.
ZONAL soils in Spain are:
OCEANIC soils (Galicia, Asturias, and the old mountains in the Central Plateau): evolved,
with many organic matter, usually acidic, and strongly leached.
MEDITERRANEAN soils: more diversed, and eroded by anthropogenic action. Red and
Brown soils are the most important. The Red soils are produced by the chemical erosion of
the limestone rock, being very productive, which is one of the reasons of the richness of the
Mediterranean agriculture. The Brown soil is where the dehesas and holm oak woods can
prosper better.
Some important NON-ZONAL soils in Spain:
Vertisols: their clay expands with moisture, cracking, and making them very fertile
thanks to the entering of oxygen, as in the Guadalquivir countryside, which is one of the
places with higher agricultural richness in Spain. However, they have a limited margin
between water-stress and waterlogging.
Rendzina soils: young alluvial soils, over limestone, rich in humus, therefore they are
dark and highly fertile, but stony. This kind of soil is, for instance, in the Valencia Plain, with
its traditional irrigated farming of orange, some of which has been moved to the coast of
Huelva. Recently, avocado has become widespread there, thanks to its growing demand.
Dark chalky soils can be more or less rich in humus, according to the rainfall they
receive. The second case -poor soils due to the dry climate- is in the valleys of the Central

1
 Tania Liñan Luna

Plateau, which meant that their agriculture has been historically low productive, and their
trend towards livestock production.
2. Spanish vegetation: major areas, biogeographic units, and plant species
Spain is a country with high biodiversity, and a great deal of endemic plants. The
factors which determine the vegetation, and its diversity, are:
● Climate: it is the most important factor again; it determines three great
groups/biogeographical regions: Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean, and Macaronesian.
● Soils: most of the species prefers specific soils, as the cork oak and the stone pine,
which both like siliceous, or the olive tree and the vine, which prefer the calcareous.
This preference of olive tree and vine for the calcareous soils explains their extension
across the Alpine mountains of the Mediterranean Basin, establishing with wheat the
Mediterranean triad, the historical land use system there.
● Relief: both height and slope side. In high mountains, the vegetation is distributed in
ecological floors, or cliserie, according with the variation in humidity and
temperature. About the slope side, in the Northern hemisphere, the Southern side is
the sunny, and the Northern is the shade. Each plant prefers some specific conditions
between both.
● Anthropogenic action: it has produced massive loggings, as the Middle Age
expansion of the farming land, or the Disentailment, the ecclesiastical (1835) and
councils (1855) land confiscations; but reforestations too, with native or non-native
species. Wildland fires are another important human impact on vegetation in the
Mediterranean countries, as Spain.
In general, there are two types of vegetation, depending on their maturity:
a) Climax, climactic, or potential: this is the integrated or mature forests –that is with the
three strata or layers: tree, shrub, and grass-, naturally evolved, without human
intervention. This kind of vegetation is very limited in Spain.
b) Secondary or subserial, which is a regressive evolution of the climactic, due to the
human impact.
The forest vegetation covers about half of the Spanish land. It is mainly into the
mountains, but into the valleys which crosses the border with Portugal too, from the Province
of Zamora until Badajoz. Other forest enclaves are the sandy lands of pinewoods in
Valladolid, and Western La Mancha1 . Woodland in the Canary Islands is denser as western,
due to the different climatic influence oceanic at west, desertic at east.
Forest land in Spain is divided between about 50 % woodland and 50 % treeless.
Leafy trees dominate Northern and Central continental Spain, while conifers occupy most of
the Mediterranean side. The exceptions are the pinewoods in the sandy lands in Central
Douro, or the northern slope of the Central Range .
About the historical development of Spanish forests, see Valbuena et al. (2010). There
are several maps of forest too, from the first.
The biogeographical regions in Spain are:
EUROSIBERIAN REGION (from the Aveiro Estuary to northern Gerona).
It has a leafy climax forest, with high trees: oak and, in the most humid mountains,
beech. These are deciduous, with smooth trunk and good timber. Chesnut, lime tree, elm , and
yew tree are its secondary species.

2
 Tania Liñan Luna

The Euro-siberian undergrowth includes blackberry, broom, heather, and, finally,

blackthorn, the raw material for the sloe brandy, very popular in Northern and Central Spain.
MEDITERRANEAN REGION (rest of the Peninsula, and Balearic Islands).
Its species are adapted to the drought, thanks to their deep roots, evergreen and
leathery leaves, slow growth (so the Mediterranean forest requires centuries to reach its
climax), small size, and hard bark. The dominant species are holm oak, cork oak, wild olive
tree, and juniper.
Abies pinsapo is a relict species which lives in Grazalema and Las Nieves Mountains,
in places with more than 1,000 mm rainfall. This species is highly protected, but it is in
serious risk by the climate crisis.
The dehesas or montados are one of the most important uses in the Mediterranean
Region. They are artificially cleared Mediterranean woods, which occupy 3.5 million
hectares in the Peninsula. The main aim is to get easier the growing of pasture, allowing the
entry of sun rays thanks to the elimination of some of the trees and the shrub. But dehesas
have other uses too, as the montanera, fuelwood production, hunting, farming, cork, or
apiculture. The word dehesa appeared first in Fuero Juzgo, a compilation of Visigothic laws,
so they are a very old land use.
Dehesas suffered a deep crisis from 1960s to 1990s, due to African swine fever
(1963-94), rural migration, and less demand of wood fuel and charcoal. Some of them
became hunting grounds or eucalyptus plantations. Now, they are valued by their
environmental benefits, including their biodiversity, and as cultural landscapes, so they are
protected, and their productions are more valuated.
In dry climates, the Mediterranean forest degrades to a brush formation named
maquis2, maquia (Italy) or garriga (Catalonia). In the sub desert Southeastern Spain, the
degradation is to a low grass steppe with palm and esparto. The Mediterranean Forest has a
rich undergrowth of strawberry tree scrub, kermes oak, mastic tree, gum rock rose, palm, and
aromatic plants.
MACARONESIAN REGION (Canary Islands)
It has a highly diverse vegetation, with Mediterranean origin. There are many
endemics and relict species too.
The height of the Canary relief produces that the vegetation is structured in levels:
- Peak area: scattered scrubland, with a high wealth of flora.
- Canarian pine, up to 2,000 m. o Laurel forest (NW sides between 500-1,500 m): it is a
wet, evergreen, and dense sub-tropical wood, which appears in the Western islands.
The trees are high, with lianas. This is a relict ecosystem from the Tertiary Age. Its
degradation is to white heather and beech.
- Thermophilic forest (300-500 m), with palm tree, drago, and sabina.
- Lowland (up to 300 m): dry, with scrub vegetation