Advances in the biogeography of littoral environments: a multidisciplinary perspective

Abstract

news and update ISSN 1948-6596 conference summary Advances in the biogeography of littoral environments: a multidisciplinary perspective 8 th Spanish Congress of Biogeography – Seville, Spain, 23–26 September 2014 A multidisciplinary perspective The Spanish Congress of Biogeography has con- vened biennially since 2000 as a spin-off of the Spanish Fieldtrip Workshops in Biogeography— held regularly since 1991—under the scope of Physical Geography. These meetings have brought together geographers dealing with biogeography at scientific, scholarly or professional levels and likewise are open to disciplines related to bio- geography. The number of contributions to this eighth congress exceeded those of previous meet- ings (Table 1). Applied biogeography had the high- est number of contributions, followed by struc- tural studies of animal and plant communities, and dynamic biogeography (Table 1). This rank- order appears a persistent trend through years, whereas fluctuating ratios between these areas indicate varying emphases in the research efforts of geographers within the field of biogeography. Vegetation and faunal systems in littoral environments was the leitmotif of the 8 th Con- gress, which centered on the progress made in their characterization, dynamics and conservation criteria. Littoral environments are especially vul- nerable to degradation due to urban sprawl aligned to tourism development (Malavasi et al. 2013). In Spain this situation was denounced in 2009 by the European Parliament on the Auken report (Auken 2009) which drew attention to these environments, or at least what remains of them. Key contributions in this congress focused on structural and dynamic studies of vegetation systems, and new conservation proposals 1 . Above all, two aspects were noteworthy: the utility of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the application of pioneering methods of inventory and conservation models. In addition to the main theme, there were contributions on non-littoral environments (including Caatinga and Atlantic Forest), which emphasized the potential for insights from inter- disciplinary approaches and paleo studies, and the relevance of disciplines such as Pedoanthracology, Palynology and Paleobiogeography. The main re- search on fauna (primarily amphibians and birds) discussed modelling techniques for species distri- bution models (SDMs) and ecological niche mod- els (ENMs), and advanced monitoring systems us- ing high-frequency GPS data-loggers. Biogeography of littoral environments The keynote speaker Jose Ojeda (University of Seville) talked about the principal trends in the access, management and dissemination of spatial information supporting biogeography, highlighting data quality, homogenization and accessibility (Vitolo et al. 2015). Over the last few decades Geographic Information Technologies (GIT) and ultimately GIS have proved to be a key point for studying and monitoring vegetation and fauna of different ecosystems (Guisan et al. 1998, Rodriguez et al. 2012). There are still few studies, however, developed in coastal dune systems. Levi Garcia (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria [ULPGC] Spain) presented a comparison of auto- mated versus manual methods for establishing the distribution of vegetation cover in arid sandy systems; the automated method led to a more objective, cost-effective and efficient analysis than the manual approach. The implementation of GIS has proved to be consistent in analysing the mo- bility of arid sandy systems (Rodriguez et al. 2009) and also the associated survival strategies of their vegetation cover. Antonio Hernandez (ULPGC) discussed the strategy of Tamarix canariensis to cope with burial by sand: the survival of young seedlings is higher in taller plants and in plants that are further away from the front of dunes. Advances in methodologies include a com- bination of phytosociological methods with new 1 See program abstract and 8 th Congress' Book for further information: http://congreso.us.es/viiiceb/en/programme.html frontiers of biogeography 7.1, 2015 — © 2015 the authors; journal compilation © 2015 The International Biogeography Society