ABSTRACT
The archipelago of Madeira is composed by a group of four islands located on the Atlantic Ocean: Madeira, Porto Santo, Desertas and Selvagens (Fig. 1).
The Madeira Island’s shape is elongated with a maximum length of about 57 km (W-E), between Ponta do Pargo and São Lourenço, and a width of about 23 km (N-S), between Ponta de São Jorge and Ponta da Cruz (Fig. 2). It has an area of about 730 km2 which corresponds to 90% of the total area of the archipelago. It has an average altitude of 700 m being the maximum equal to 1819 m.
