The vegetation of Madeira: IV - Coastal Vegetation of Porto Santo Island (Archi...

• Author(s): Capelo, J. ; Costa, José C. ; Jardim, Roberto ; Sequeira, Miguel ; Aguiar, Carlos ; Espírito-Santo, Dalila ; Lousã, Mário
• Date: 2003
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/5334
• Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
• Subject(s): Coastal vegetation; Porto Santo Island
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The littoral geomorphology of the Porto Santo Island is of paramount importance in the coastal phytocoenosis assemblage: the southern part of the island has an 8 km long sand beach with littoral sandstone platforms in its eastern extreme; sandstone or volcanic (mostly trachits) sea cliffs predominate in the rest of the island; in the northern part of the island, near the airport, there is an elevated dune (more than 150 m above sea level), related to an ancient island tilt. In the Porto Santo' s beach and cliff ecosystems, we found four new associations. All of them are finicolous associations in the context of their alliances, with low floristic diversity and presided by small area endemics.