PART II
Island Ecology
Volcanic islands can reach considerable heights, and then
are subject to process of erosion, dissection and sometimes
catastrophic landslides. In the distance, the youthful peak of
El Teide (3718 m) is less than 1300 years old, whilst the
foreground looks across the much older collapse feature of the
Orotava valley. In the foreground, a stand of Canarian pine
forest is disappearing into the cloud band that forms daily in
association with the trade wind inversion, and which is a key
regulator of water balance and of vegetation zonation on the
island of Tenerife.