Disclosure book by Julián Simón López-Villalta de la Tundra Publishing. A small wonder that has made me change my vision on many points.
In the book he reviews all the ecology of the mediterranean forest. Going through the history of the Mediterranean, its habitats and biodiversity where it tells us about trees, shrubs, herbs, carnivores, granivores, herbivores, pollinators, parasitoids, insectivores, decomposers, scavengers.
A section dedicated to survival (droughts, fires, frosts, etc.) and another to the relationships between species (predators and prey, parasites, competition, mutualism and symbiosis and diners and tenants)
As you can see, it is a complete look at plant and animal species and the relationships between them and the habitat where they live. All perfectly explained and integrated, giving an overview of how the ecosystem works, why it is so special and why it contains so much biodiversity.
And something that I love is the large amount of bibliography that he has left and that I want to consult to expand certain aspects that interest me.
It is very difficult to get all the notes on this article, because I would almost have the entire book on the blog. When there are few notes I do add them. Here is a general view of what you can find and as I write about certain species, relationships, habitats, etc. I will be incorporating the specific notes that I have taken for each one of them.
Just a couple of very interesting general points about Mediterranean climate and habitats.
It will interest you too A geologist in troubles
About the Mediterranean climate
It is a temperate and moderately rainy climate, with hot, dry summers and mild winters.
What distinguishes the Mediterranean climate is that the dry season coincides with the climate with the warmer season.
This Mediterranean climate occurs in 5 more regions of the planet. (Western South Africa, South and Southwest Australia, Central Chile, California and the Mediterranean Basin)
They call them the little tropics. The Mediterranean areas are the ones with the greatest variety of plants in the temperate zone of the planet, as well as having a large number of amphibians and reptiles and especially a large number of endemisms.
Variety of habitats
This is the section that I liked the most. Explain the 5 habitats that we can find and that I did not know. 5 major types of terrestrial ecosystems.
- Mediterranean forest. Low forests (10m - 20m) and despite what people believe, in the forest the variety of palantas is much less than in other habitats.
- maquis (machia, macchia). When the forest is degraded by fellings and / or fires, etc., the large trees disappear and a state of cleared forest is passed, with few trees and much more scrub.
- garrigue (garrigue). Very clear scrub, typical of limestone soils. Many aromatic plants grow, whose oils favor fires that help them spread.
- thyme (Phrygana,. If the land continues to deteriorate, it turns into a thyme, with very small shrubs, similar to a steppe, where thyme, one of the most resistant plants in the Mediterranean, ends up predominating.
- rocks. They are frequent in mountainous areas, there is hardly any soil for plants and the simplest vegetables and specialized plants predominate (ferns, mosses, lichens)
The typical rocky areas of mountainous areas and the other 4 related to each other for each ecosystem comes from the degradation of the previous one, due to grazing, logging, fires, etc.
In Ikkaro
Well, the book has given me the general vision I was looking for, for the project that I have once commented on and that, although slow, is still underway: the study and cataloging of the different animal plants and their relationship in an environment, but in a local environment. , that is to say, in my region. Although at the web level I have only published certain specific topics such as some files on the centaure or about the swifts, the notes and documentation continues to grow.
It is a long-term project that I am gradually shaping up.
