Europe: Garajonay National Park, Spain

Map:

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Photos:

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General Info:

Garajonay National Park in the Canary Islands of Spain is located in the Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of Africa at N28° 7' 34.5" W17° 14' 14". The Canary Islands are a group of volcanic islands that are around 115 kilometres from the northwestern coast of Africa. There are seven main islands Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and Hierro. Garajonay National Park was declared a national park in 1981 and covers 15 square miles. The park itself is named after the tallest rock formation "Garajonay" which stands at 4,869 feet and an elevation of 2,426 meters. The Canary Islands are made up of debris from an underwater volcano that accumulated over millions of years, eventually reaching the surface of the ocean.

Sunrise and Sunset:

In the winter, sunrise is at 8am and sunset is at 6:30pm, and there is 10.5 hours of daylight. In the summer, sunrise is at 7am and sunset is at 9pm, and there is 14 hours of daylight being consistent with northern hemisphere predicted patterns. Residing close to the equator, equinoxes (spring and autumn) average 12 hours of day and sunlight as well as an albedo consistent with that of the west african coast.

Average Temperature:

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The Canary Islands have a temperature range indicative of many ocean locked high latitude land formations as the highest normal temperature is in August at 24.7° celsius (76.46° F) and the lowest in January at 18.4° celsius (65.12° F).

Climate Type:

The Canary Islands have a Dry Subtropical climate type which is characterized by hot humid summers, and mild to cool winters. Coastal locations that house this climate range from 25° to 40° latitude. Temperatures between 18 to 25 degrees celsius reign over this area during the entire year. Due to being ocean locked, the temperatures tend to be consistently similar from year to year leaving people able to swim in the ocean the entire year. In the Caribbean, which heats up in the summer to 30 degrees celsius, the water in the Canary Islands will only rarely rise to 25 degrees celsius.

Severe Weather:

While there is not issues with severe weather currently affecting the islands, future changes may occur with global warming. There is expected to be an average increase in temperature of 1 °C. (11) With an increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation, forest fires are predicted to become more common. (10) If the polar ice caps were to melt, an increase in sea level of a possible 6 to 8 feet would occur. Tourists would no longer be able to enjoy the island's beaches, as they would then be underwater. While these islands were first created by volcanic activity into a climate unaffected by global warming, they are very much susceptible to damage induced by surrounding water.

Wind Direction and Pattern:

Winds come always from the northeast with the global wind pattern being the northeast trades. With the location of these islands at around 28 degrees north of the equator, airflow from the northeast moves with the equator. A continental tropic air mass rules these islands and this never changes through the year. Though the direction and speed seems to vary quite a bit. Wind speeds up to 16mph make up the average, but March and July can see winds as fast as 40 mph.

Precipitation:

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The precipitation patterns follow many areas in the northern hemisphere as May through August experience little to no rain, April, September, and October with a greater amount, January, February, March and November with even more, and the most in December. Precipitation is in the form of rain only and is constant throughout the year, though the total amount of rain annually comes to a collective 24 to 31 inches.

Humidity Ranges & Incidence of Fog: Subtropical Zones:

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A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot, usually humid summers and mild to cold winters. It normally lies on the southeast side of all continents, generally between latitudes 25° and 40°. It tends to be located at coastal or near coastal locations.

A subtropical region should have at least eight months with a mean temperature greater than 10 °C (50.0 °F) and at least one month with a mean temperature under 18 °C (64.4 °F). (9)

Dew Point Temperature Range is 10.9°C- 16.7°C with an average of 13.3°C. The interpretation of these numbers is that the humidity of our location is almost always at a comfortable level of humidity. (8)

Air Mass

The Canary Islands, located along the north west coast of Africa, are affected by maritime subtropical air masses. (5)

Biogeography

Biome and Ecoregion

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According to the biome map above, the Canary Islands are part of the Chaparral biome, just as the surrounding areas of Southern Spain and Portugal, and Northern Morocco and Algeria. The Chaparral biome, which can also be known as Mediterranean Scrubland or sclerophyll forest, is dominated by the subtropical high pressure zone in the fall, summer and spring months making rainfall occur during the winter months. (13)

According to the World Wildlife Fund, the Canary Islands are part of the dry woodlands and forest ecoregion. The islands that are included are: La Palma, Hierro, Gomera, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria. Islands on the west side have more mountains and forests than its eastern counterpart. Those islands are more dry, lower and are included in the Mediterranean Acacia-Argania Dry Woodland and Succulent Thicket ecoregion. However, Garajonay National Park itself is much more wet with 75% to 90% year round and because of this vegetation is able thrive very well. Though these islands do not have river systems, ravines that have shaped the landscape over thousands of years still reside. Each of these islands is home to a specific kind of soil, and "based on vegetation, more than 70 different terrestrial ecological communities can be described for this ecoregion" (Machado 1998). (12) (14)

Invasive Species/Environmental Threats

As seen above, the canary islands containing Garajonay National Park are close to the northern section of the African tectonic plate, but earthquakes, even though they may happen (such as last year where 90 mini-quakes were recorded on Tenerlife (17)), are measurable but not felt in this area. Being a member of many small islands off the northwest coast of Africa we are at risk of Tsunamis as well being home to 7 volcanos 5 of which are active, 2 that are dormant and 1 that is believed to be dormant on La Gomera (the island containing our national park) and hasn’t erupted for an estimated 2-3 million years (18). Landslides also affect the park being very common due to rainfall. Lastly, there is an idea that the collapse of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma would sink into the Atlantic ocean in a giant landslide that would create a mega-tsunami affecting the eastern United States shoreline as well as Europe. (19) (20)

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The Albino California Kingsnake is an invasive species in the Canary Islands, and is proving to be an environmental threat. They were brought in as popular pets, and escape or are let loose. They are indigenous to San Diego where they are bred in captivity. With no natural predators to limit their numbers, king snakes continue to grow in population size. With no time to develop defense mechanisms, native bird, mammal and lizard species have been shrinking. According to Canary Island biologists, these snakes are predicted to be eating native species of gecko, skink and giant lizard possibly to extinction. In an effort to stop these reptiles, dogs and hawks are being used against them as well as snares which have claimed the lives of fewer than 2,000 that slither over specific areas of the ground. The president of the California chapter of the North American Field Herping Assn., Brian Hinds, proposes digging up specific areas with earth movers since they live below ground. There is not a plausible way to eradicate these snakes, but maybe to control their numbers. Canary Island officials want to cut down their population by at least half. (15)

Geologic/Seismic Activity/Threats

The main natural disaster threat that the Canary Islands are faced with are landslides. These landslides can be prevented or lessened in several ways. The first way would be to increase slope stability by removing large mass objects, such as large rocks, from the slope area. Another way to prevent or lessen landslides would be to prevent groundwater from reaching the landslide area by covering the land with impermeable membranes in order to prevent water infiltration in the landslide, directing surface water sources away from the landslides, draining groundwater streams away from the landslides, or minimizing irrigation on the surface of the soil. (21)

Plate Boundaries/Internal Processes

The Canary Islands are located relatively close to the border of the African Plate as well as the Eurasian Plate. The Islands were formed as result of a divergent seafloor plate boundary, causing a number of mid-ocean ridges to form. To this day, there isn't much seismic activity, however there have been records of some very minor "mini-quakes" across the islands.

Rock Types

There is an abundance of different rock types in the Canary Islands, with the past volcanic activity creating basalt magma rock as well as other metamorphic rocks. Most basalts are alkalineg in the shield-building stages, trachytes and phonolites are very common in the declining stages, while the rejuvenation stages produced essentially basanites and nephelinites (26).

Weathering/ Erosion

Due to a lack of volcanic activity over the course of time in our area, there has been a great amount of erosion of the volcanic passageways. Around 13 million years ago, there was a bit of volcanic activity, but in the last 5 million years there has been little to none. The volcanoes have become less and less active, and the mountainous volcanic structures have undergone freshwater and marine erosion, leaving the landscape to be much smoother than before (24). Seen below is a well-known rock structure in La Gomera called La Roca.

Water and its Impact

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Garajonay National Park contains many streams and springs that provide water for the entire island of La Gomera. The forests within the park also has what is called a “sea of fog” that provides most of the moisture to the forest. Also, being that our area rests on an island, much of the climate is controlled or greatly impacted by water. (23) The surrounding water has proven to be beneficial for the people that inhabit the Canary Islands, drawing a lot of ecotourism for the beaches as well as a plethora of fresh seafood.

Wiki page links/citations

(1) https://ewanswanders.wordpress.com/tag/garajonay-national-park/

(2) http://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions-/canary-islands-e-can-canary.htm

(3) http://www.spain.info/en/que-quieres/naturaleza/espacios-naturales/parque_nacional_de_garajonay.html

(4)http://www.yr.no/place/Spain/Canary_Islands/Parque_Nacional_de_Garajonay/statistics.html

(5) http://tokyoweather.blogspot.com/2011/11/tokyo-air-masses.html

(6)http://www.arkive.org/habitats/islands/north-atlantic-islands/image-H473

(7) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/parks/garajonay-spain/

https://content.meteoblue.com/en/meteoscool/general-climate-zones/subtropical-zone

(8) http://www.tenerife.climatemps.com/humidity.php

(9) "Subtropical Zone." Meteoblue. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

https://content.meteoblue.com/en/meteoscool/general-climate-zones/subtropical-zone

(10) http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC104349/lbna28340enn.pdf

(11) https://stopclimatechange.net/fileadmin/content/documents/climate%20policy/Final_report_EP_CC_impacts_on_islands_plus_Cas_Studies_web.pdf

(12) http://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/pa1203

(13) http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/9k.html

(14) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/parks/garajonay-spain/

(15) http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-kingsnake-20140428-story.html

(16) http://bellavallone.com/fault-lines-map.aspx

(17) http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/717563/Canary-Islands-earthquake-tremors-Tenerife-Mount-Teide-volcano

(18) https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/canary-islands.html

(19) http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2013/12/13/canary-islands-tsunami/

(20) https://books.google.com/books?id=V9k3R2Y3-1IC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=are+there+earthquakes+in+garajonay+national+park&source=bl&ots=APG8fUl79M&sig=wh-T5WQfzQJQHOgZxJ5d7jkE8zo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjgqP3viprTAhVM74MKHZG1AQIQ6AEIMTAD#v=onepage&q=garajonay&f=false

(21) http://www.wlf2.org/how-to-reduce-the-effects-of-a-landslide/

(22) http://www.apartamentosgomera.com/blog/about-garajonay-national-park/

(23) http://uncover.travel/hiking-through-garajonay-national-park-on-la-gomera/

(24) http://www.vallehermosoweb.es/turismo/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=55&Itemid=211&lang=en

(25) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02597785

(26) http://www.mantleplumes.org/Canary.html