To explore the relationship between geodiversity and borders of natural protected areas, we studied the northern part of Jaén Province (southern Spain), where the southern sector of the Central Iberian Massif, the Betic Cordillera and the Guadalquivir foreland basin come together. Moreover, several natural protected areas (NPAs) are located here. To approach the topic, we defined the geodiversity index as the sum of partial indices: lithological, geomorphological, palaeontological, pedological, minerals, hydrology and geosites. This made it possible to derive a map of the geodiversity index and a map of geodiversity gradient. Analysis of their distribution shows that almost 80% of the territory has values of medium, high and very high geodiversity, but these zones are situated outside the borders of the NPAs. A similar study considering two biological indices (endangered species and biodiversity) shows a good correlation between the limits of NPAs and the higher values of these indices. Thus, an absence of correlation between the geodiversity index and biological indices is clearly detected. These results are not in agreement with the definition of NPAs in the current Spanish laws of nature conservation.

中文翻译：

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伊比利亚中部地区（哈恩省）南部地区的地球多样性评估：对划定和管理自然保护区的有用性

为了探索地球多样性与自然保护区边界之间的关系，我们研究了哈恩省（西班牙南部）的北部，中伊比利亚地块的南部，贝蒂克山脉和瓜达尔基维尔河前陆盆地汇聚在一起。此外，这里还设有几个自然保护区。为了解决这个问题，我们将地球多样性指数定义为部分指数的总和：岩性，地貌，古生物学，土壤学，矿物，水文和地质地点。这样就可以得出地球多样性指数的地图和地球多样性梯度的地图。对它们的分布的分析表明，近80％的领土具有中等，高度和非常高的地球多样性，但这些区域位于NPA边界之外。一项涉及两个生物学指标（濒危物种和生物多样性）的类似研究表明，NPA的限制与这些指标的较高值之间具有良好的相关性。因此，清楚地检测到地球多样性指数和生物指数之间没有相关性。这些结果与现行的西班牙自然保护法中的NPA定义不一致。