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4th LTER-Europe Conference & 2nd SCCSevilla-Doñana 21-25 January 2008 |
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Excursion to DoñanaThe 2nd LTER-Europe conference will be held in the close vicinity of Doñana National Park (CIECEMA, Matalascañas).Protected in 1968, Doñana National Park (537 km2) is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a Ramsar Site and a Natural World Heritage Site. It contains the largest wetland in Western Europe, a intricate matrix of marshlands (270 km2), phreatic lagoons, a 25 km-long dune ecosystem with its respective shoreline and representative Mediterranean terrestrial plant communities. Conservation objectives include the preservation of critically endangered species (Iberian Lynx, Spanish Imperial Eagle, Marbled Teal), of the abundance of waterfowl, and of Mediterranean wetlands and terrestrial ecosystems. Doñana is both a critical stopover site for Palearctic birds migrating to Africa and an important overwintering site for waterfowl. Doñana LTSER platform comprises both the protected area and the surrounding territories (2736 km2) where a complex landscape matrix composed by rice fields, fisheries, irrigated crops, berry greenhouses, vineyards, olives and pine afforestations hold the tributary streams that pour their water to the fluvial marshland, the main figure of Doñana. Doñana surroundings hold over 180000 permanent inhabitants. More than 60% of the employment is concentrated on the agricultural sector, and another 25% is devoted to the service sector, which is mainly focused on tourism. Inside the protected land, the main 3 ecosystems sustain more than 1550 species of vascular plants, 900 species of arthropods, up to 400 breeding and migratory bird species, 38 mammal species, 72 species of fishes, 40 reptile and amphibian species. Since 2002, the Doñana Biological Station has started an ambitious Monitoring Programme on natural resources and processes of Doñana. More than 80 protocols are systematically applied to monitor changes in the main natural resources and processes at different scales. You will find spatial information on Doñana Monitoring Web Map Server. The proposed excursion will show to the LTER-Europe community the implementation of the monitoring programme by an organized trip across the main Doñana ecosystems and stopping at representative sites where specific monitoring protocols area applied to share with the visitors the equipment, methods, technology and results of such programme. Thus, the excursion want to show the incomparable beauty of Doñana landscapes as well as the work in process for long term ecological research. Schedule for Doñana excursion will start at 8:30 AM leaving Matalascañas and entering the Park (10'). Then, main monitoring responsibles will show along the morning their work to the visitors. The excursion will finnish at Palacio de Doñana, main facility of Doñana Biological Station inside the Park where we will have lunch. Some pictures of Doñana (© Hector Garrido):          |
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