Altitudinal pattern of vegetation variation on Tenerife

The variation in structure and floristic composition of the vegetation of Tenerife is related to different environmental factors. 200 sample plots, stratified according to altitude, exposure to wind, kind and age of parent rock, inclination and degree of disturbance were analysed throughout the isla...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of vegetation science 1995-04, Vol.6 (2), p.183-190
Main Authors: Fernandez-Palacios, J.M, De Nicolas, J.P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Altitude
Canaries
Canary Islands
Cloud sea
Clouds
Coenocline
Coniferous forests
Environmental determinant
flora
geology
Hansen & Sunding
phytogeography
Plant communities
plant ecological groups
Plants
Scrub vegetation
slopes
Sloping terrain
spatial distribution
variation
Vegetation
Vegetation belt
Vegetation structure
vegetation types
wind
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Summary:The variation in structure and floristic composition of the vegetation of Tenerife is related to different environmental factors. 200 sample plots, stratified according to altitude, exposure to wind, kind and age of parent rock, inclination and degree of disturbance were analysed throughout the island. The resulting data were analysed using univariate statistics (altitudinal distribution profiles of the more frequent species) and multivariate methods (Correspondence, Cluster and Pattern Analysis). Altitude, exposure to wind and, to a lesser extent, disturbance were found to be the major determinants of vegetational variation, whereas parent rock and inclination were less important. Ordination results show a continuum in structural and floristic variation of the vegetation with species distributions varying continually along the altitudinal gradient. Nevertheless, altitudinally bound plant community types were recognized with Cluster Analysis. Vegetational discontinuities, which were also detected by pattern analysis, are more evident on the windward slope of the island; they have been attributed to the existence of a major underlying environmental discontinuity the 'cloud sea'- which is associated with a climatic inversion. On the leeward slope, beyond the influence of the cloud sea, discontinuities are less evident and vegetational variation seems to be closer to a coenocline, i.e. a vegetational continuum.
ISSN:1100-9233
1654-1103
DOI:10.2307/3236213