Se querem descobrir e fotografar achados da Natureza da Praia de Quiaios e da Serra da Boa Viagem, visitem uma das regiões mais ricas em Biodiversidade e Geologia de Portugal!


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Mapa da Serra da Boa Viagem com Trilhos (Triângulo do Cabo Mondego)

sábado, 13 de abril de 2013

Hillwalking at the Beach of Quiaios

 

  Hillwalking at the Beach of Quiaios

(Cabo Mondego, Figueira da Foz, Portugal)

Meeting Nature at Quiaios-Beech (Praia de Quiaios)

A systemic view.

During year we will undertake small walks at the beach of Quiaios and along the hillsides of Serra da Boaviagem. We will observe animals and plants at Praia de Quiaios. :

  • the species and habitats of plants and animals
  • the diverse habitats and ecosystems of these species under systemic aspects

Fig. 1  - The Beach of Quiaios (Praia de Quiaios) seen from Cabo Mondego

The Cabo Mondego and the Dunes of Mira, Gândara and Gafanhas, at the extreme occident of Europe, show a rich spectrum of ecosystems and habitats of great ecological value.

Fig. 2  - Cabo Mondego and the Dunes of Mira, Gândara and Gafanhas ( PTCON0055  )

The following list of natural and semi-natural habitats of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC, included in the Plano Sectorial da Rede Natura 2000, is furnished by the ICNB  (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e da Biodiversidade) for the Dunes of Mira, Gândara and Gafanhas.

1. COASTAL AND HALOPHYTIC HABITATS

11. Open sea and tidal areas

12. Sea cliffs and shingle or stony beaches

1170

Reefs.

1210

Annual vegetation of drift lines.

1230

1240

Vegetated sea cliffs

2. COASTAL SAND DUNES AND INLAND DUNES

21. Sea dunes of the Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic coasts

22. Sea dunes of the Mediterranean coast

2110

Embryonic shifting dunes

2120

Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria  ('white dunes')

2130

* Fixed coastal dunes with herbaceous vegetation ('grey dunes')

2150

* Atlantic decalcified fixed dunes ( Calluno-Ulicetea )

2170

Dunes with Salix repens  ssp. argentea ( Salicion arenariae )

2190

Humid dune slacks

2260

Cisto-Lavenduletalia  dune sclerophyllous scrubs

2270

* Wooded dunes with Pinus pinea  and/or Pinus pinaster

3. FRESHWATER HABITATS

31. Standing water

32. Running water - sections of water courses with natural or semi-natural dynamics (minor, average and major beds) where the water quality shows no significant deterioration

3110

Oligotrophic waters containing very few minerals of sandy plains ( Littorelletalia uniflorae )

3150

Natural eutrophic lakes with Magnopotamion  or Hydrocharition  - type vegetation

3270

Rivers with muddy banks with Chenopodion rubri  p.p. and Bidention  p.p. vegetation

3280

Constantly flowing Mediterranean rivers with Paspalo-Agrostidion  species and hanging curtains of Salix  and Populus alba

4. TEMPERATE HEATH AND SCRUB

4030

European dry heaths

5. SCLEROPHYLLOUS SCRUB (MATORRAL)

52. Mediterranean arborescent matorral

53. Thermo-Mediterranean and pre-steppe brush

5230

* Arborescent matorral with Laurus nobilis

5330

Thermo-Mediterranean and pre-desert scrub

6. NATURAL AND SEMI-NATURAL GRASSLAND FORMATIONS

61. Rupicolous calcareous or basophilic grasslands

62. Semi-natural dry grasslands and scrubland facies

64. Semi-natural tall-herb humid meadows

6110

Rupicolous calcareous or basophilic grasslands of the Alysso - Sedion  albi. Habitat group: grasslands.

6210

Semi-natural dry grasslands and scrubland facies on calcareous substrates ( Festuco-Brometalia ) (* important orchid sites)

6420

Mediterranean tall humid grasslands of the Molinio-Holoschoenion

6430

Hydrophilous tall herb fringe communities of plains and of the montane to alpine levels

8. ROCKY HABITATS AND CAVES

82. Rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation

83. Other rocky habitats

8210

Calcareous rocky slopes with chasmophytic vegetation

8330

Submerged or partially submerged sea caves

9. FORESTS

91. Forests of Temperate Europe

91E0

* Alluvial forests with Alnus glutinosa  and Fraxinus excelsior  ( Alno-Padion , Alnion incanae , Salicionalbae )

91F0

Riparian mixed forests of Quercus robur , Ulmus laevis  and Ulmus minor , Fraxinus excelsior  or Fraxinusangustifolia  , along the great rivers ( Ulmenion minoris )

92A0

Salix alba and Populus alba galleries

With blue background color: prioritary habitats

There exists, at the western limit of Europe, a dune landscape with litoral and arborized dunes where you can find endemic plants, as for example the Portuguese Crawberry (Corema alba)  of the Empetraceae family, whose white berries are edible.

 

Fig 3a  - The Portuguese Crawberry (Corema album ) at the Grey dunes

of Praia de Quiaios

Fig 3b   - Wooded dunes with Maritime Pines ( Pinus pinaster )

and Stone Pines ( Pinus pinea )

The Eastern limit of the beach of Quiaios is formed by a small chain of hillsides, the Serra da Boaviagem , where you can find plants in the transition between Atlantic and Mediterranean Flora. There a rich sites with orchids (habitat 6210  ) and dwarf forms of plants, well adapted to the strong sea winds. Also, especially at the upper parts of the hillsides, where fog is more frequent contributing to an elevate humidity, you can find an interesting and unique plant community.

Fig. 4 - Pulicaria odora  - species from the Compositae family

Fig. 5a,b,c - Iberis procumbens ?ssp. microcarpa

Fig. 6  - Armeria welwitschii

The Cabo Mondego which forms the southern limit of the Beach of Quiaios, is an important geological site, in 2007 declared as a Natural Monument, with rich fossil documentation  and an undisturbed stratification from the Middle and Upper Jurassic Period.

To the North of the Beach of Quiaios we find extensive dune landscapes with white and grey dunes and arborized dunes, the Dunas de Gândara, Mira e Gafanhas .

The Atlantic Ocean around Cabo Mondego is often wild and dangerous - but it leaves impressions of beauty to everyone who loves nature.

Fig. 7   - Cabo Mondego during winter

Fig. 8   - The reefs of Cabo Mondego

Fig. 8a  - Fossils from Cabo Mondego

Fig. 8b  - Fossils from Cabo Mondego

South from Cabo Mondego we find the Estuary of the Mondego river. This estuary does not belong to the region of dunes of Gândara, Gafanha and Mira. But as the distance is short from beach of Quiaios to the estuary, we will undertake excursions to the Isle of Murraceira at the mouth of Mondego river. This isle is surrounded by two arms of Mondego river, a northern and a southern arm. The southern arm has rich salt marshes and you can find salt evaporation ponds and other extensive agricultural and aquaculture activities. In this region exists a rich halophytic vegetation - and waders as stilts ( Himantopus himantopus ), flamingos ( Phoenicopterus roseus ) and other birds specialized for living in low salt water and brackish waters, can be found here.

Marshland south from Ilha da Murraceira

The Mondego bridge

An old wind mill

Extraction of salt

Flamingos in abandoned salt evaporation ponds

Wooden "palheiros"   where extracted salt is stored

  Walks: 2

   

  • (I) Praia de Quiaios e da Murtinheira (Caminhadas/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (II) As dunas móveis da Praia de Quiaios  (Caminhada/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (III) As dunas consolidadas da Praia de Quiaios  (Caminhada/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (IV) As falésias e recifes do Cabo Mondego (Caminhada/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (V) A encosta da Serra de Boaviagem - (Caminhada/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (VI) As Lagoas (Caminhada/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (VII) Estuário do Mondego   (3-4h – Caminhada/Partida: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")

Conferences:

  • (VII) Estudos sobre dinâmica de sistemas (1h – Palestra: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")
  • (VIII) Resume de palestras de Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker sobre a questão "Para onde nós nos dirigimos e o que devemos fazer? " (1h – Palestra: C@fé-Gelataria "Quiaios-Praia")

Links:

Photos de horstengels

http://www.panoramio.com/user/199980

Photos de horstengels2

http://www.panoramio.com/user/1601996

Maria da Assunção Ferreira Pedrosa de Araújo: Geomorfologia Litoral

 http://web.letras.up.pt/asaraujo/seminario/Aula7.htm

Fixação e Arborização das Dunas do Litoral

http://www.drapc.min-agricultura.pt/base/documentos/fixacao_dunas.htm

Biogeografia de Portugal Continental

https://woc.uc.pt/fluc/getFile.do?tipo=2&id=915

The Coastal Vegetation of the Portuguese Divisory sector: Dune cliffs and Low-Scrub Communities

http://www.ceg.ul.pt/finisterra/numeros/2000-69/69_04.pdf

(Esta publicação é a mais importante para conhecer os releves de comunidades florísticas da zona e constitui uma inestimável ajuda para uma orientação aprofundada sobre a flora costeira do Cabo Mondego.)

COSTA, J.C. (2001) – Tipos de vegetação e adaptações das plantas do litoral dePortugal continental.

In Albergaria Moreira, M.E., A. Casal Moura, H.M. Granja & F.

Noronha (ed.) Homenagem (in honorio) Professor Doutor Soares de Carvalho: 283-299. Braga. Universidade do Minho.

(Um trabalho didáctico importante sobre adaptações ecológicas de plantas nas zonas costeiras)

XXXII: Aditamentos à vegetação do Sector Divisório-Português

http://www.scielo.oces.mctes.pt/pdf/slu/v10n1/10n1a09.pdf

Invasões biológicas

http://www1.ci.uc.pt/invasoras/

Flora Iberica

http://www.rjb.csic.es/floraiberica/

(A Flora Iberica não está ainda completada, mas encontra-se aqui já a mais exaustiva informação sobre a Flora ibérica, disponível em formato pdf. A consulta e os downloads dos diversos taxa podem ser feitas a partir da página web da Flora Iberica. Mais uma vez obrigado por esta generosidade dos autores desta obra maravilhosa!)

Fauna Ibérica

http://www.fauna-iberica.mncn.csic.es/index.php

Flora Digital de Portugal

http://www.jb.utad.pt/pt/herbario/cons_reg.asp

Herbário da Universidade de Coimbra

http://www.uc.pt/herbario_digital

Plano Sectorial da Rede Natura 2000

Convenção Ramsar  http://www.ramsar.org/

Veja também:

o blog: Fotofigueira

o blog: Casa do sal

o blog: Flora da Serra da Boaviagem

Inscrições : Associação Trilhos d'Esplendor  – PRCT Pavilhão Terreiro 2/3,  Praia de Quiaios  – Rua da Praia. 3080-515 Figueira da Foz. Mais Informações : Tel. 967460855 e por email: horst.engels@gmail.com

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