Text and photos by Jesús López Angulo
In the last decade, mountain sports, especially trail running and hiking, have experienced remarkable growth. Trail running, for example, has increased by more than 230%, placing Spain among the countries where this activity has expanded most intensely. This boom is generating increasing pressure on high-mountain ecosystems, characterized by their fragility and high diversity of plant species, many of them endemic. The widespread use of digital platforms for sharing sporting activity provides large volumes of information that allow for an accurate estimation of land use intensity. Thanks to this data, it is possible to identify not only the most frequented trails, but also those off-trail areas that athletes frequently use, including sensitive areas that should not be impacted. This raises key questions: how is this recreational activity, especially off-path, affecting high-mountain vegetation?
These questions have been addressed in the ECORUN project. To this end, vegetation sampling was carried out at 50 sites, evaluating a total of 180 2m² plots in both the Central System and the Pyrenees. The results show that off-path exits directly impacts high-mountain vegetation in both systems. In the Guadarrama Mountains, species richness decreases by 14% and vegetation cover by 33% in the most affected areas. In the Pyrenees, the effects are more pronounced, with a 23% reduction in species richness and a 40% reduction in vegetation cover. Furthermore, the loss of species is accompanied by changes in floristic composition. Some species show high sensitivity to trampling, while others, such as Paronychia polygonifolia, appear to benefit from these conditions. These preliminary results highlight the importance of integrating digital information on recreational use with ecological monitoring to guide the management of protected areas. Identifying critical areas and the most vulnerable species allows for prioritizing conservation actions, such as trail marking, restoration of degraded areas, and environmental education.
This work was made possible by a grant for postdoctoral researchers funded by the Global Change Research Institute (IICG) at Rey Juan Carlos University.