Fraxino Angustifoliae-Ulmetum Glabrae: an original endemic and extremely locali...

• Author(s): Monteiro-Henriques, Tiago ; Costa, José Carlos ; Bellu, Annalisa ; Aguiar, Carlos
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/5068
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): Ulmus glabra; Fraxino angustifoliae-Ulmetum glabrae; Serra do Montemuro; GIS analysis
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The natural occurrence of Ulmus glabra in mainland Portugal has been recently recognized. These punctuated occurrences are peripheral and scattered from the main distribution area in the centre and north of Europe. U. glabra colonizes soils of heavy textures, relatively rich in bases, cool and frequently rocky on steep slopes (e.g. ravines, shadowy canyons), under supra to orotemperate, humid to hyperhumid bioclimates. This combination of ecological factors is rather unusual inmainland Portugal, however during an inventory excursion in the north of Portugal (Serra do Montemuro), in a small canyon ofBalsemão riverwe detected a mesophilous/temporihygrophilous forest dominated by U. glabra and Fraxinus angustifolia. This forest is extremely localized occurring on Ordovician silty schists, under upper mesotemperate to supratemperate hyperhumid bioclimate. It probably corresponds to an interglacial refugium for the species. We ran an edaphoclimatic model within a geographical information system, in order to highlight other possible areas of occurrence for this forests and guide future efforts in finding it in mainland Portugal.