Aspects of the vegetal recolonization in an area of submediterranean mountain: Jubera valley (Iberian System, La Rioja)

Abstract

The recent population loss typical of great amounts of the Spanish mountain areas produced importan! changes in the actual structure of mountain landscape. One of the most characteristic features of this phenomenon is the abandonment of great expanses of cultivated land and the development of vegetal recolonization of the jields. This process has entrained the transformation of rural landscape. We make an approach to the process of plant succession dynamics on the abandonnedjields in the high Jubera basin (Iberian System, La Rioja). We show the vegetal evolution of these slopes and the main stages of vegetal succession, according to the main factors that lead their evolution: ecological environment and recent mangement of the parcels. Finally, sorne relations between vegetal cover and degradation or conservation of the before-cultivated soils are discussed