VOLUME 4 NUMBER 1 DECEMBER 2014 CONTENTS Biogeography of Spain and Portugal. Preliminary typological synopsis ..................................................... 1-64 S. Rivas-Martínez, Á. Penas, T.E. Díaz-González, S. del Río, P. Cantó, L. Herrero, C. Pinto Gomes & J. C. Costa The Galician-Portuguese biogeographic sector. An inicial advance .......................................................... 65-81 S. Rivas-Martínez, J. Izco, T.E. Díaz-González, Á. Penas, J. C. Costa, J. Amigo, L. Herrero, J. Giménez de Azcárate & S. del Río International Journal of Geobotanical Research, Vol. nº 4. 2014. pp. 1-64 Biogeography of Spain and Portugal. Preliminary typological synopsis Salvador RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ (1), Ángel PENAS (2), Tomás E. DÍAZ-GONZÁLEZ (3), Sara DEL RÍO (2),Paloma CANTÓ(4), Luis HERRERO (2), Carlos PINTO GOMES (5) and Jose Carlos COSTA (6) (1) Phytosociological Research Center, Collado-Villalba, Madrid, Spain. (2) Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management (Area of Botany). Mountain Livestock Farming Institute (Join Center CSIC- ULE), Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of León (Spain), Campus of Vegazana, s/n., E-24071 León. (3) Department of Organisms and Systems, Faculty of Biological, University of Oviedo., E-24071 Oviedo. Spain. (4) Department of Vegetal Biology II, Faculty of Pharmacia, Complutense University of Madrid., E-28071. Madrid. Spain. (5) Department of Paisagem, Ambiente e Ordenamento. Universidade de Evora. Evora. Portugal (6) Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Centro de Botânica Aplicada à Agricultura, Tapada da Ajuda 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal. Abstract: A preliminary biogeographical typology of Spain and Portugal is established in the present paper. Two regions, 5 subregions, 13 provinces, 18 subprovinces, 62 sectors and 267 districts are recognized. Its biogeographic content besides nomenclatural changes of those units previously described are shown. Finally, its names in English, Spanish and Portuguese are stated. Keywords: Biogeography. Spain. Portugal. Biogeographic units Introdution nial substitution units- are the only biogeographical units which can be repeated disjointed. Biogeography is the science which studies the distri- The landscape cells, such as horst, peneplains, river bution of species, communities, habitats, biocoenosis and ecosystems on the Earth, as well as the relationships valleys, lake systems, marshes, high mountain summits, between them and their causes. It takes into account the etc., are constituted by a group of teselas or permateselas areas of taxa and syntaxa (chorology), in addition to and their corresponding complexes, assembled by net- information from other natural sciences (geography, works of geosigmeta and geopermasigmeta based on the botany, soil science, bioclimatology, geology, etc.), and geomorphology and soils of the territory. attempts to establish a hierarchical biogeographic typo- The biogeographical country must be an extensive logy of the land territories on the Earth. The main syste- and accurately delimited territory which possesses an matic units in decreasing rank are: kingdom, region, abundant group of landscape cells, species, associations, province, sector, district, country, landscape cell and and above all, own topographical geosigmeta. tesela (RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ & al., 2007, 2011). Terrestrial The district is a series of biogeographical countries, biogeography has been twinned with phytogeography characterized by the existence of numerous differential due to the value of vascular plant species and communi- species and even endemic taxa, especially in the coastal, ties in its definition and delimitation on Earth. Oceanic oreadic or interior halophilous zones, which permit their biogeography and their complex ecosystems should be separation from the adjacent territories; it also comprises study with oceanological statistical research methods. as independent units some associations, series, geoseries The elementary biogeographic terrestrial unit of the and geoclinoseries which are absent in nearby districts. lowest rank is the tesela, defined as a geographic space The sector is an assorted biogeographical districts with a greater or lesser extension, environmentally ho- with a large-scale geographic entity, which possess its mogeneous, that means, has only a single type of poten- own endemic taxa, associations and vegetation series, as tial natural vegetation (climax) and a single sequence of well as original topographical and geoclinosequential perenial substitution communities (RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ, geoseries which are generally due to the existence of 2005). exclusive geoclinoseries climatophilous, permanent and The tesela and the permatesela -conceived within the subserial communities, as well particular paleoclimatic framework of dynamic-catenal phytosociology located in evidences and former migratory routes. exceptional sites: polar, fluvial, lake and marine landsca- The province is a vast geographic territory, formed pes, deserts, high mountain summits, dunes, rock forma- by a group of biogeographical sectors, possessing a large tions, coastal cliffs, etc., in which the permanent vegeta- number of endemisms and differential species (its own tion growing in these elementary spaces lacks of peren- subelement), as well particular macroseries. It is also Corresponding author: Ángel Penas Merino. Botany Section, Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Leon, Vegazana Campus, E-24071 Leon. e-mail: [email protected] ISSN: 2253-6302 (print)/ISSN: 2253-6515 (on line) ©Editaefa DOI: 10.5616/ijgr 140001 2 S. Rivas-Martínez, A. Penas, T.E. Díaz, S. del Río, P. Cantó, L. Herrero, C. Pinto Gomes & J.C. Costa characteristic of each biogeographical province to hold All biogeographic units recognized for the Iberian geomacroseries and a particular altitudinal vegetation Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Madeira, zonation or exclusive geoclinoseries. Azores as well as mainland and island circumscriptions The region is a very extensive territory, formed by a of Spain in the north of Africa are hierarchically related group of biogeographical provinces, which has a flora or from the region rank to district rank: region, subregion, regional floristic element with species, genera or even province, subprovince, sector and district, all of them endemic families; in addition it has its own particular belonging to the Holartic kingdom. The same was done megaseries, geomegaseries and geomegapermaseries and in the first synopsis about the biogeographical tipology in consequence, its own bioclimatic and vegetation belts of Spain and Portugal (RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ, 1987, COSTA (RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ, 2005). & al. 1999, RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ, 2005; RIVAS-MARTÍNEZ Finally, the kingdom is the supreme unit of biogeo- & al., 2007, 2011). Sector, subprovince and province graphy, generally pluricontinental and multinsular, will be the reference biogeographic units in the current synopsis. They were firstly delimited by their geogra- which in addition to taxonomic and ecosystematic con- phic, bioclimatic, floristic, edaphic and vegetational siderations, addresses the roots of the flora and terrestrial characteristics and they will be the descriptive units in fauna, as well as the movements of the great continents, this work about Biogeography of Spain and Portugal. orogenies and particular macrobioclimates. The subsector rank has not been considered in order As is by now traditional in this science, the denomi- to simplify the biogeographic tipology. Nevertheless, the nations of the biogeographic units –both the primary and names and contents of the subsectors have been conside- the auxiliary units (from the subregion to the area)– are red in many cases as districts or biogeographic territo- given based on known geographical, orographic or histo- ries, that is, as juxtaposition units without formal hierar- rical designations which are considered to be more or chical rank. It is also the case of biogeographic areas. less coincident with more or less the area they are inten- It have been also called biogeographic zones to those ding to represent. Orthographically, all the units are resulting from the splitting of districts whose double considered to be proper names identifying the zone. The names refer to well delimited adjacent geographic names of high ranks (provinces or higher) are formed, if territories which have been used to define district units. necessary by, two geographical nouns, joined by means The biogeographic areas as in the case of biogeographic of a hyphen; contrary, the lower ranks (sector or less) are territories are units without a precise biogeographic rank occasionally joined by the conjunction and; all the dou- appearing from the addition of geographic, cardinal, ble biogeographical names maintain the initial capital in bioclimatic or ecologic features such as: coastal, nort- both and conserve their grammatical condition of proper hern, southern, oreinous, alpine to formal or hierarchical noun. biogeographic units. It must be emphasized that the biogeographical units Although we are still far from achieving the kno- can only be accurately delimited through their scientific wledge and enough geobotanical accuracy to formally diagnosis and through the corresponding maps. All the propose a broad jerarquization to regional level, some territories –except the tesela and permatesela– must be regional units have been provisionally