IBERALP

Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici
  • Alpine ecosystems have high ecological value and biodiversity, and provide important ecosystem services, but are highly vulnerable to climate and land use changes.
  • Despite their ecological importance and vulnerability, there is a lack of information on soil biodiversity, exchange of greenhouse gases (GHG) and carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics of alpine meadows.
  • Variations in soil plant and microbial communities, combined with environmental changes, can affect climate regulation by altering GHG exchanges and C and N cycling.

The creation of the IBERALP network is proposed to study the vulnerability to climate change of biodiversity and the exchange of GHG in the alpine communities of five Iberian mountain National Parks (PN): Picos de Europa, Ordesa y Monte Perdido, Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici, Sierra de Guadarrama, Sierra Nevada.

Ordesa y Monte Perdido

Objective

The main objective is the analysis of interactions between components of biodiversity, mainly plant and soil microbial diversity, and their relationship with GHG flows; and how these interactions are affected by climate change.

National Parc of Picos d'Europa
National Park of Picos de Europa
National Park of Sierra de Guadarrama
National Park of Sierra Nevada

Protocols

  • General sampling protocol
  • Vegetation sampling protocol: plant and PFT diversity
  • Soil sampling protocol: metabolomics and metagenomics
  • Greenhouse gases sampling protocol: CO2, CH₄, N₂O

5 NP x 2 altitudinal belts x 2 community types x 3 replicates = 60 plots

Scheme for the gas sampling with Picarro G2508 CRDS analyzer.

Species separation and dry weighing

Reports and publications

  • Zumeta, B. (2022) Estudio del flujo de respiración de tres gases de efecto invernadero (CO2, CH4 y N2O) en prados subalpinos del Parque Nacional de Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici. 37 pàg. TFG, University of Lleida. Lleida.
  • Alsina, E. (2023) Estudi de la variació de la vegetació alpina en funció de les variables ambientals en cinc Parcs Nacionals de muntanya. 99 pàg. TFG, University of Lleida. Lleida.
  • Bohra, R. (2023) Greenhouse gas fluxes across climatic gradients in mountain National Parks of the Iberian Peninsula. 32 pàg. Master Thesis, University of Lleida. Lleida.

Codi del projecte: 016295

Finançament: 83.706 €

Durada del projecte: 2021-2024

Entitat finançadora: RPAN – Xarxa de Parcs Nacionals, MTERD – Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico

Intranet IBERALP