Doctoral thesis

The high mountain landscape in the Sierra de las Nieves National Park (high mountain pasture, scrubland and gall-oak woodland) is highly vulnerable to global change, due to the impacts of rising temperatures and human pressure through grazing and sporting activities in nature. These impacts affect the eco-geomorphological hillside-grassland-carcass dynamics so characteristic of this landscape. This, in the face of increased torrential rainfall and droughts, plus anthropic pressure, causes changes in vegetation and soil properties (carbon capture and structural stability) and, therefore, in geomorphological dynamics, with consequences for biodiversity, landscape, and the ecosystem services that the territory provides to local society and its visitors.

Based on these premises, the following objectives are established:

1. To characterise the eco-geomorphological system and its spatio-temporal variability of the grassland landscapes of the Sierra de las Nieves National Park and, in particular, those located in its high mountain environment, above 1,600 m above sea level.
2. To analyse the spatio-temporal eco-geomorphological dynamics of the slope-grasslandcarcass system, characteristic of the aforementioned environment, from the point of view of edaphic processes - carbon sequestration and structural degradation of the soil - and geomorphological processes - meteorisation and water erosion -, considering their interaction with the vegetation cover and anthropic activity (grazing and sporting activities).
3. To provide territorial information about the degree of vulnerability of the grassland landscape at the national park level and, with greater interest, of those located in the high mountain environment, considering the different regional climate change scenarios proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2022 report, from the point of view of the impact on eco-geomorphological processes and their geo-environmental consequences.
4. To assess the effects of the geo-environmental processes analysed in objectives 1 and 2 from the point of view of ecosystem services, especially those related to process regulating services (soil carbon sequestration and water resources) and cultural services (landscape uses and aesthetics), in order to promote mitigation and adaptation measures to Global Change, considering the results obtained in the achievement of objective 3, in order to improve the resilience and management of the protected natural area.