Sierra Nevada National Park

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Coordinates: 37 ° 12 ′  N , 3 ° 15 ′  W

Sierra Nevada from the north

The Spanish National Park Sierra Nevada , in Spanish Parque Nacional de Sierra Nevada , protects a large part of the Sierra Nevada in the provinces of Granada and Almería of the autonomous community of Andalusia . The national park was established in 1999 and covers an area of ​​86,208 hectares. It is considered representative of the middle and high altitudes of a mountain range in the Mediterranean region . The 3,482 m high Mulhacén is also the highest mountain on the Iberian Peninsula. Above 2000 meters, three quarters of the precipitation falls as snow. The winters are cold and the summers are hot and dry. The Sierra Nevada National Park is particularly known for its rich flora with numerous endemites and for the population of the Iberian ibex .

vegetation

Around 2100 different plant species grow in the area of ​​the national park, 116 of which are considered threatened. 80 plant species are endemic , they only occur in the Sierra Nevada. At the altitude between 1700 and 1900 meters, holm oak forests dominate , in some places French maple , snowball maple , Portuguese oak ( Quercus faginea ) or the Pyrenees oak can also be found . Black alder , willow , ash , elm and poplar can be found along the rivers .

Between 1900 and 2800 meters there are pines and Spanish junipers , with increasing altitude the forest turns into bushland ( Matorral ). The most common is the enebral-piornal type of the matorral, characterized by juniper (Spanish enebro) and goat clover Cytisus purgans (Spanish piorno serrano). The fescue species Festuca indigesta , the sandwort Arenaria imbricata and the endemic species Genista versicolor , Arenaria pungens and the cinquefoil Potentilla nevadensis are also characteristic of this plant community . In the high mountain range above 2,800 meters, trees or bushes no longer thrive. The alpine lawns there can contain up to 70% endemic plants, but also plants with a wide distribution such as the alpine gentian . Referred to "Borreguiles" wet lawns at the base of the glacier Karen grow the force as a symbol of the park plantain -Art Plantago nivalis and butterwort Pinguicula nevadensis . On scree more endemic species can be found, like the violets -Art Viola crassiuscula or saxifrage -Art Saxifraga nevadensis .

Wildlife

The Iberian ibex is common and easy to spot in the national park. The snow mouse lives above 2,500 meters . The Iberian lynx no longer occurs in the Sierra Nevada, but the wildcat does .

Because of the summer heat, the Sierra Nevada is missing some of the birds found in other mountains in Europe. For many migratory birds, the Sierra Nevada, which extends in a west-east direction, is an obstacle that must be avoided. 84 breeding bird species have been counted in the Sierra Nevada National Park. In addition to the Golden Eagle can be used in high altitude Alpine Accentor , wheatear , black redstart , Chough and thrush observe. The subalpine Matorral is home to the common pipit , skylark , bloodline fly , zippammer , ortolan , stonechat and the red chicken .

Infrastructure

Visitor numbers
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
250,000 275,000 292.128 302.520 315,000 558,489 645.738 728.137 737.183 684.573 673.302 667.319 680.883 680.162 611.095 690.150 780.702
* Data from a website of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Oriol Alamany, Eulàlia Vicens: Parques Nacionales de España . Lynx Edicions , Barcelona 2003, ISBN 84-87334-45-8
  2. ↑ Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Alimentación y Medio Ambiente: Red de Parques Nacionales: Visitantes , accessed on November 6, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Sierra Nevada (Spain)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files