They can be eight metres tall, but they often look like small bonsais because of the difficulties they have to grow in unfauvorable places. The Acer opalus granatense, popularly known as maple from Granada, is an endangered species. It is a deciduous species, whose populations are currently “islands” that persist in the Mediterranean thanks to microclimatic conditions in places like cliff bottoms, north hillsides and high mountain rocky hills; bushes play an important role in its growth.
“The study focuses on Sierra Nevada, on the Trevenque area and on Baza; it is also an extensive study of the whole Iberian Peninsula and all the areas where you can find maple trees, except for the Rift and Majorca”, Lorena Gómez Aparicio, from the University of Granada, points out; she has carried out a thesis in the Earth ecology research team, under the direction of Regino Zamora Rodríguez and José María Gómez Reyes. In some of these areas “there are less than ten trees”. In that sense, it would be important to reduce the livestock or to disperse it so that the new trees can grow in the first years.
“Herbivorous animals, like mice, or the hoofed ones, like goats or sheeps, prefer deciduous trees´ leaves to the perennial ones for feeding. These latter are more numerous, and when there is a deciduous tree, like the maple, they all go to it”, Gómez Aparicio explains. And he adds: “Other reasons for this bad situation are the cutting down of trees and desertification, owing to the direct action of humans”.
Seed dispersion
In this work the species regeneration cycle has been studied, from seed dispersión to young trees growth, with the applied objective of designing conservation and restoration measures to ensure the feasibility of tree populations in the long term. Gómez Aparicio explains that “it is an anemocory species, that is, it has seeds which are dispersed by wind. In the case of the maple, as adults are relatively low and seeds are heavy, its ability to fly is very limited, so that most of the seeds disperse very close to mother plants”.
The difficulty for the species in reaching new areas is a consequence of the limited dispersion. So, the best way to reinforce or reintroduce the maple of Granada in areas where they have decreased or disappeared is by sowing seeds or introducing seedlings. The young researcher intends to go on studying the maple of Granada and the strategies to save our forests from the disturbances we and nature in general cause them. Her next stop, New York, in the Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook), in an area where maple trees are plentiful.
Further information: Dr. Lorena Gómez Aparicio.
Department of Animal Biology and Ecology of the University of Granada.
Phone numbers: 958 243242 / 248590.
E-mail: lorena@ugr.es
