José Luis Martín Esquivel

Teide National Park - Tenerife (Canary Islands) · Conservation

Climate change is modifying plant communities and ecosystems around the world. Alpine ecosystems are of special concern on oceanic islands, due to their characteristic higher endemicity rate, small area and undergoing severe climate change impact in the last few decades. During recent decades there has been increasing interest in the effects of cli...

We analyse the oldest available data on the high‐elevation vegetation on Tenerife's Mt. Teide, namely the species shown in A. von Humboldt's (1817) Tableau Physique des Iles Canaries (TPIC), which is based on his own 1799 visit and an 1815 visit by L. von Buch and C. Smith. The analysis is of interest in the context of climate change and biotic cha...

Increasing species regression speeds are one of the consequences of global warming, which affect both rare and abundant species. However, long-term monitoring data are rarely available to understand the effects of global warming. Alpine ecosystems on islands are some of the most unique in terms of species composition around the world, with high pro...

The analysis by using Google Scholar it can be deduced that between 2009 and 2018, 236 investigations were published, including 21 bachelor's / master's theses, involving more than a thousand researchers. Since 2009 up to the present there has been a new publication every 15 days, equivalent to an average 23.6 ± 4.19 per year, which are distributed...

The climate of the high mountains of Tenerife is characterized with temperature data coming from eight automatic stations in the Teide National Park and its surroundings. It highlights the uniqueness and diversity of the climate of this high mountain area, with two well differentiated sectors, one cold and humid to the windward side in the northeas...

The recovery of threatened species is one of the essential objectives of conservation in the Teide National Park, where just over half a dozen species of flora are classified in the categories of endangered and / or vulnerable. The last decade has been particularly successful in increasing the localities and abundance of these species, to the point...

Ecological monitoring in the Teide National Park has four branches : species, vegetation, ecological processes and climate. In each of them, different variables are measured mainly annually, but in some cases, such as climate, measurements are taken every ten minutes. Long data series are already available, which in some exclosures reaches more tha...

El género Viola es uno de los más amenazados por el cambio climático y los herbívoros invasores en la alta montaña de Canarias, estando representado actualmente por los endemismos insulares V. palmensis (La Palma), y V. cheiranthifolia y V. guaxarensis (Tenerife). En este trabajo se ha modelizado la distribución potencial de estas tres especies en...

RESUMEN Se relacionan los diferentes tipos de medios subterráneos habitables existentes en los terrenos volcánicos, con especial énfasis en los distintos tipos de redes de mesocavernas (medio subterráneo superficial, depósitos de piroclastos) y de macrocavernas (tubos volcánicos, simas y diques vaciados). Se presenta una tabla de riqueza de cuevas...

The Teide broom, Spartocytisus supranubius , is an endemism of the Canary Islands (Spain) and the dominant legume of the Tenerife high-mountain ecosystem in Teide National Park (N.P.). Biotic and abiotic stresses are causing a progressive deterioration and decline of the population of this keystone legume. Since its symbiosis with rhizobia is the m...

La vegetación de alta montaña de Tenerife está formada actualmente por un matorral ralo con retama (Spartocytisus supranubius) y rosalillo (Pterocephalus lasiospermum) como especies dominantes. Este ecosistema está sufriendo un calentamiento importante que está teniendo consecuencias en la estructura y composición de la vegetación. En efecto, mient...

Invasive alien species and climate change are two of the main current threats to conservation of biodiversity worldwide. Their effects have been extensively studied individually, but we know less about their combined effect. This study analyzes the population changes in the plant community of the high mountain legume shrub habitat of Tenerife over...

This letter to the editor describes the surge of “photo-friendly” stacks of stones as an emerging tourism-associated threat to rock-dwelling biodiversity.

Viola guaxarensis M. Marrero, Docoito Díaz & Martín Esquivel, sp. nov., belonging to V. sect. Melanium Ging. (Violaceae), is described and illustrated. It is a small chamaephyte currently known in only two localities within the high-mountain zone of Tenerife, Canary Islands. Data on aspects of its morphology, ecology, rarity and conservation status...

Global warming is changing the structure and elevational limits of treelines around the world. This could become a threat particularly on islands, where usually high mountain ecosystems occupy small areas. Tenerife, with a maximum elevation of 3715 m, is an excellent example of this. In this subtropical island, the treeline composed by endemic pine...

Could a tree survive for centuries on an oceanic island under strong human pressure? And what if the island is subject to the recurrent activity of several volcanoes? The Canary Islands archipelago, in the North Atlantic Ocean, meets both conditions. These volcanic islands have been inhabited by humans for the last two millennia (Arco et al. 1997)...

During the last decades, ecosystems have suffered a decline in natural resources due to climate change and anthropogenic pressure. Specifically, the European rabbit introduced by humans, as well as drought episodes, have led to a change in the vegetation structure of a mountainous ecosystem: Teide National Park in Spain. Teide managers studied, wit...

Islands harbour a spectacular diversity and unique species composition. This uniqueness is mainly a result of endemic species that have evolved in situ in the absence of mammal herbivores. However, island endemism is under severe threat by introduced herbivores. We test the assumption that endemic species are particularly vulnerable to generalist i...

Islands harbour evolutionary and ecologically unique biota, which are currently disproportionately threatened by a multitude of anthropogenic factors, including habitat loss, invasive species and climate change. Native forests on oceanic islands are important refugia for endemic species, many of which are rare and highly threatened. Long-term monit...

Alpine ecosystems on islands are among the most isolated on Earth, leading to very high rates of endemism. Endemic species on oceanic islands are particularly vulnerable to invasive herbivores. In the alpine zone of Tenerife, which harbors a unique endemic flora, the dominance pattern of the two most dominant species in our days (Spartocytisus supr...

The evolution of temperature on Tenerife Island until 2015 shows that the warming of the island has grown since the beginning of the last century at a rate of one tenth of a degree per decade. However, the trend in summits is much higher than in the rest of the island and increases by 1.7 tenths of a degree per decade. The warming has accelerated s...

Oceanic islands ecosystems are among the most endangered in the world, as the effects of ongoing climate change may potentially combine with other pre-existing drivers of plant population decline. In the Canary Islands, nitrogen-fixing Teide broom (Spartocytisus supranubius) is a keystone species in the Teide National Park high mountain ecosystem....

The objective of this work was to analyze the evolution of the vegetation covers of Teide National Park through the use of remote sensing data. The analysis of changes has been carried out on two scales: at medium resolution using Landsat data and at very high resolution, for specific zones, by means of the combination of aerial orthophotos and the...

Background: Islands are particularly sensitive to biological invasions. The arrival of humans with their cohort of accompanying species has been cited as one of the primary causes for ecosystem change. Question: The introduction of these non-native species has been largely responsible for the tragic disappearance of native island biota and the dism...

The variation in temperature on the island of Gran Canaria is studied using the method applied to the nearby island of Tenerife [1]. An upward warming trend of 0.09˚C ± 0.05˚C (α = 0.01) was seen from 1946 to date, which has accelerated since the seventies to 0.17˚C ± 0.10˚C (α = 0.01). The increase was higher at night (0.11˚C ± 0.05˚C) than by day...

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categories and criteria were applied to small-sized spore-producing plants with high dispersal capacities (bryophytes). The application of some of the IUCN criteria to bryophytes in small and highly environmental diverse islands implies several problems. The criteria applicability i...

Temperature variation is studied at different altitudes and orientation on the island of Tenerife, according to the trends in the mean, maximum and minimum at 21 meteorological stations. Reference series are obtained by sectors, along with a representative overall series for Tenerife, in which temperature shows a statistically significant growth tr...

The IUCN Red List is the most useful list of species that are at risk for extinction worldwide, as it relies on a number of objective criteria. Nevertheless, there is a taxonomic bias that excludes species with small body sizes, narrow distribution ranges and low dispersal abilities, which constitute the vast majority of the planet's biota, particu...

Oceanic islands have been the grand stage of documented extinctions. In view of limited resources, efficient prioritization is crucial to avoid the extinction of taxa. This work lists the top 100 management priority species for the European archipelagos of the Macaronesian region (Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands), taking into account both th...

The lists of threatened species provide a partial basis from which many governments and NGOs responsible for the recovery of endangered species can draw up conservation priorities. Such lists should therefore, be unambiguous, both in terms of taxonomic diagnosis and the degree to which the species listed are threatened. The importance of establishi...

Invertebrate communities in volcanic habitats of different ages on the islands of La Palma and El Hierro were studied using standardized trapping and searching techniques. A variety of graphical and numerical approaches were used to analyse relationships among the sites. Young, barren lava flows constitute aeolian ecosystems with a fauna of general...

Exposición de líneas orientativas respecto a la manera de proceder para la elaboración de un plan conjunto de gestión de especies incluidas en el Listado de Especies Silvestres en Régimen de Protección Especial de la lista de especies protegidas de Canarias, así como respecto al modo de estructurar su contenido.

En el marco del Proyecto BIONATURA, dentro del PROGRAMA INTERREG III-B AZORES-MADEIRA-CANARIAS, los gobiernos regionales de estos tres archipiélagos han puesto en marcha de forma conjunta la confección de un catálogo de especies invasoras prioritarias de gestión en la Macaronesia. El objetivo de esta iniciativa es obtener listas de las especies inv...

La Comunidad Autónoma de Canarias es la región española con mayor número de taxones exclusivos incluidos en el Catálogo Nacional de Especies Amenazadas debido a su gran biodiversidad (con una gran cantidad de endemismos insulares o locales), la distribución muy reducida de muchas de sus especies exclusivas y las situaciones críticas de amenaza de m...

We analyze the determining factors for setting conservation priorities of species under the principle of the responsibility of action and how this principle is related with the evaluation based on the social worry. We also indicate what groups of species are candidates for their inclusion in lists under a regional perspective and how to evaluate th...

En esta memoria se presentan los resultados de la evaluación de especies amenazadas correspondiente al año 2004. Dado que es la primera vez que se aborda un ejercicio de este tipo se ha puesto énfasis en explicar cómo se han desarrollado los trabajos (cap. 1) y el entorno técnico-jurídico asociado a las especies amenazadas y a su evaluación (caps....

Orientación cobre la forma de proceder durante la elaboración de un plan de una especie amenazadas en cuanto a cómo pensar los objetivos, cómo estructurar su contenido, como priorizar acciones y cómo ponerlo en práctica. Referido especialmente a las especies amenazadas del Catálogo de Especies Amenazadas del Gobierno de Canarias

El contenido de este libro pretende extraer una muestra de los diferentes aspectos que desarrolla en la actualidad el Banco de Datos de Biodiversidad. En un primer capítulo se pormenorizan las necesidades de creación del Banco, así como sus características y funcionalidad. Posteriormente se abordan las distintas maneras en las que se está haciendo...

This paper outlines a technical procedure for classifying threatened species. The procedure is divided into three phases: evaluation of the taxonomic status, evaluationof the conservation status and protection of the threatened species. The paper analyses the uncertainties surrounding each of the phases and proposes an assessment method based on re...

A system is proposed for classifying the species occurring in the hypogean environment in relation to their ecological and evolutionary characteristics. The ecological criteria utilized relate to the preferred habitat of the animals (the epigean, endogean or hypogean environment) and the evolutionary criteria specify the grade of adaptive modificat...

The Viento Cave is a very long lava tube (> 20 Km) localised in Icod de los Vinos, at the north slope of Tenerife (Canary islands, Spain). The cave is formed inside a lava flow coming from Teide mountain, probably in the last thousand years. It has important morphologic and biologic feature for conservation, and because of this the regional governm...

Se describen cinco especies nuevas del género Loboptera en Canarias: L. lagunensis, L.penirobusta, L. chioensis, L. tenoensis y L. teneguia. Todas las especies son de vida hipogea y muestran estrechas relaciones entre sí y con las especies antes descritas de estas islas, a excepción de L. canariensis. Se incluye una diagnosis del género y una redes...

Se describe una metodologia para ayudar a delimitar áreas protegidas cuando la escasez de recursos destinados a la conservación obliga a intentar abarcar la mayor biodiversidad taxonómica posible en la mínima superficie. Para ello se discute la importancia como herramientas de conservación de los mapas que permiten identificar centro de diversidad,...