Complejidad y diversidad en el paisaje de la montaña riojanauna perspectiva general sobre su proceso de construcción y transformación

Abstract

Landscapes of La Rioja mountains have been the consequence of a long history of human activity. Temperature decline because of altitude and the steep slopes reduced the possibilities of land management. The evolution of the subalpine belt was conditioned by the necessity of enlarging the summer grasslands to feed the transhumant sheep flocks since the Neolithic until the Middle Ages, as deduced from the dates supplied by charcoal. In the montane belt we explain the possible enlargement of the agricultural area, following the logical pattern from the best to the worst fields. The crisis of the transhumance and the textile industry in the 18th and 19th centuries contributed to the expansion of the agricultural area, in order to ensure the survival of the local population. The recent process of farmland and subalpine grasslands abandonment enlarges the forest areas and the recolonization of the montane belt by shrubs.