Los trabajos de Manuel Martín Bolaños sobre la vegetación y la flora forestal de la provincia de Huelvaaplicación al análisis de cambios espacio-temporales en el Paraje Natural Sierra Pelada y Rivera del Aserrador

Resumen

Manuel Martín Bolaños (1897-1976) was a forestry engineer from Huelva (South Spain) who developed his professional career as a researcher for the former Instituto Forestal de Investigaciones y Experiencias (IFIE), now Centro de Investigación Forestal of the Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria CIFOR-INIA. He, along with the renowned botanists and forestry engineers Luis Ceballos y Fernández de Córdoba (1896-1967) and Carlos Vicioso Martínez (1886-1968), studied the vegetation of Spain and contributed to its cartographic representation, thus continuing previous work, initiated in 1853, by the national service of Forestry Engineers. As an output of his research, monographs were published between 1930 and 1954 on the forest vegetation and flora of Cádiz, Málaga and Lérida provinces, each along with a corresponding forestry map on scale 1:100,000. A concomitant study for the western Canary Islands, including a map on scale 1:200,000, was also published. Martín Bolaños led the works for the provinces of Sevilla and Huelva, which have remained unpublished owing to different reasons. Through a long-lasting process of documentation I have compiled the available information on his works centred in Huelva province, which were found to be dispersed among different Spanish institutions including CIFOR-INIA in Madrid, the Unit of Botany of the Faculty of Forestry Engineers at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the Royal Botanic Garden (Madrid) and the Centre for Research and Documentation on the Eucalypt at the University of Huelva. Based on a revision of the 2802 specimens of his herbarium, of which 1162 were not identified and not catalogued, the 90 maps on scale 1:25,000 he elaborated during field works, and photographic records among other professional documents, I was able to date his work to the period 1941-1951, to identify the members of his research team, to reconstruct the methodology, and to fully compile the monograph of the Study on the forest vegetation and flora of Huelva province, and its associated Forestry Map on scale 1:100,000. The resulting work provides a deep knowledge of the past characteristics and extent of forestry environments of Huelva province, and thus of the changes that they experienced along the first half of the past century, allowing for connections with previous historical times. The resulting floristic checklist, enriched with additions by the research group of the author, comprises 583 species and infraspecific taxons (varieties and forms), including 56 chorological novelties, of which 17 are new for the province and 39 are so for at least one of the chorological territories of Huelva province. Current applications of the works carried out by Martín Bolaños in Huelva province are relevant and diverse. As a case study, I present a diachronic study on the forest vegetation of the conservation area Paraje Natural Sierra Pelada y Rivera del Aserrador, referred to the period 1946-2015 and aimed to analyze vegetation response to impacts resulting from different forest management models and policies. I also present a biographical note emphasizing the interesting personal and professional life of Manuel Martín Bolaños, and a bibliographical list including a large number of unpublished documents, with indication of their current location, aimed to facilitate further research.