Mediterranean woody plant growth.forms, biomass and production in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The major physiognomic features of Mediterranean vegetation in the eastem part of the Iberian Peninsula are described considering a coastal and a continental gradient and oro-Mediterranean formations.The main communities include broadleaved evergreen forest, maquis, pine woodlands, "garigue", matorral, thom-scrub and dwarf-shrub steppes along mesic-xeric gradients, and pine-juniper woodlands and xeroacanthic cushion-like formations as altitudinal stages.We discuss sorne morphologico-functional traits of dominant plants from these different formations as related to environmental conditions, and their corresponding energy use strategies.Even though there are relatively few data on biomass and production, a broad synthetic approach is given, with sorne reference values.