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).