Los Monegros
Los Monegros is a county and a semi-desert area of gypsum hills and plains in Eastern Aragon (betwixt Huesca and Zaragoza) covered with steppe vegetation with some seasonal saline lagoons.
Excellent blog in Spanish to the Monegros here by Nacho. Clearly he knows his stuff about one of the most biodiverse corners of the Iberian Peninsula.
Around the web
Information about AragonLos Monegros “The Monegros region is situated in the central part of the Ebro valley, east of Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain. The extreme climatic conditions of the area have produced a vegetation similar to that of the North-African steppes.” – Complete guide mostly in Spanish
Manifesto for the Monegros “Los Monegros is a singular, mature ecosystem, unique in the European context, whose biological diversity has proved to be exceptionally important both from a quantitative and a qualitative point of view. The biocenose of the Monegros, as has been documented so far, includes some 4500 biological species, more than in any other known Spanish or European habitat, and presents the highest level of taxonomic novelties (species new to science) in the whole of Europe this century, with a high degree both of endemicity and of only European records, and with a large number of biogeographic ranges and new ecological adaptations of an enormous scientific interest. If one takes into account objective, balanced data, there is no other area in the country, and perhaps in the whole of Europe, that comes even near to the level of singularity, novelty, rarity and biodiversity that has so far been scientifically documented in Los Monegros.”
In the Spanish desert, a rival to Las Vegas (Guardian)
The Iberianature guide to Spain
