Format: ORAL

Adrin Escudero1; Martí March1 and WorldClimb group

1 Instituto de Investigación en CAmbio Global (IICG/URJC); Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, MAdrid, Spain

Cliff flora constitutes one of the less studied biodiversity components worldwide. This is surprising since it shelters a huge amount of very endangered plant species, and also a high representation of very ancient lineages and relicts which have survived perched on the inaccessible rocks. Cliffs shelter low competitive taxa which are refuged up there, but also a complete guild of rupicoluous specialists which have developed morphological and physiological adaptations to occur there. Consequently, cliffs are natural labs to evaluate microevolutive mechanisms but also to have a complete perspective of the biological history of a territory. However, our knowledge on the ecological and evolutive determinants of these habitats is almost null, although botanists have systematically explored the cliffs to complete the checklists of every explored territory. Threats are putting at risk this biological treasure. Emergence and recent massification of climbing as a very popular outdoor activity together with the incidence of other drivers of Global Change such as warming are pushing most of these plants at the verge of extinction and make necessary to evaluate the impact of this increasing pressure on the viability of these plants. Here we evaluate the risk associated to the popularization of this sport and the effectivity of conservation measures taken to face this problem. Specifically, we evaluated if the measures taken within protected areas are effective and, also, if they leakage to the surrounding areas. Preliminary results suggest they are ineffective. A paradigmatic example of this pressure is the almost total extinction of the population of Petrocoptis grandiflora in the Encia da Lastra Natural Park duto climbing.