Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
countries (e.g. Spain, southern France, Greece and Israel) and concerned plant
communities which shared the same ecological, floristic and structural traits of
Italian shrublands.
14.3 The Study Case of Italian Shrublands
Italian shrubland plant communities are ascribed to 17 classes, 26 orders, 56 alli-
ances (Table
14.1
) and c. 730 associations and subassociations (data not shown).
The most widespread communities resulted to be: (1) the Mediterranean maquis
and scrubland (class
Quercetea ilicis
, order
Quercetalia calliprini
); (2) the submed-
iterranean deciduous mantle assemblages (class
Rhamno cathartici
-
Prunetea spi-
nosae
); (3) the acidophilous (classes
Cisto ladaniferi
-
Lavanduletea stoechadis
and
Cytisetea scopario
-
striati
) and basiphilous (
Cisto cretici
-
Micromerietea julianae
and
Rosmarinetea officinalis)
) garrigues and heaths; (4) the coastal sub-halophilous
shrublands and garrigues (
Crithmo
-
Staticetea
pro parte
); (5) the psammophilous
garrigues typical to the fixed dunes (
Helichryso italici
-
Crucianelletea maritimae
pro parte
); (6) the alpine, sub-alpine, and apennine scrublands and heaths (classes
Erico
-
Pinetea pro parte
,
Calluno
-
Ulicetea
and
Pino
-
Juniperetea
); (7) the oromedi-
terranean heath communities typical to the mountain tops of Central and Southern
Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily (
Carici
-
Genistetea lobelii
and
Rumici
-
Astragaletea
siculi
); (8) the thermo-hygrophilous open riparian communities (class
Nerio
-
Tamaricetea
) and (9) the halo-xerophilous (class
Pegano
-
Salsoletea
) and halo-xero-
nitrophilous (class
Sarcocornietea fruticosae
) scrub communities dominated by
shrubby chenopods.
Table
14.2
provides a synthesis of the useful data on above- and belowground
biomass concerning (or which could be applied to) the Italian shrubland communi-
ties and their dominant/characteristic WS.
A preliminary finding of our research is the uneven degree of knowledge con-
cerning the different shrubland Italian plant communities. For example, many
papers concern the thermo-xerophilous maquis assemblages referred to a single
phytosociological alliance, i.e.
Oleo
-
Ceratonion
, while there is still no literature on
the biomass of 11 out of 17 classes, 18 out of 26 orders, and 39 out of 57 alliances.
More in detail, no information was found concerning
Nerio
-
Tamaricetea
,
Cytisetea scopario
-
striati
,
Calluno vulgaris
-
Ulicetea minoris
,
Erico
-
Pinetea
,
Vaccinio
-
Piceetea
and
Pino
-
Juniperetea
and most part of the WS-dominated
plant communities typical to coastal habitats and referred to the classes
Crithmo
-
Staticetea
,
Helichryso
-
Crucianelletea maritimae
,
Pegano
-
Salsoletea
and to the
order
Limonietalia
of the class
Sarcocornietea fruticosae
.
Many of the plant communities whose biomass has never been evaluated play
only a minor role in terms of biomass because they cover rather small surfaces
and/or because they are dominated by small shrubs (e.g.
Rumici
-
Astragaletea
siculi
and
Carici
-
Genistetea lobelii
). The only important exceptions are the mantle
communities referred to
Rhamno cathartici
-
Prunetea spinosae
: even though they
