Plants, Animals, Humans and Climate

*Habitats of the World - Biodiversity and Threats*

habitats: The role of anthropogenic pressure in temperate streams. Plant Biosystems. 2015;**149**(2):289-297. DOI:

10.1080/11263504.2013.822434

2018;**152**(6):1205-1213. DOI: 10.1080/11263504.2018.1435572

[29] del Río S, Álvarez-Esteban R, Cano E, Pinto-Gomes C, Penas A. Potential impacts of climate change on habitat suitability of *Fagus sylvatica* L. forests in Spain. Plant Biosystems.

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**11**

**Chapter 2**

**Abstract**

*Ziziphus* (5220\*)

semiarid ecosystems, *Ziziphus lotus*

**1. Introduction**

Intensive Habitat Loss in South

Spain: Arborescent Scrubs with

*Antonio J. Mendoza-Fernández, Esteban Salmerón-Sánchez,* 

The habitat arborescent matorral with *Ziziphus* (5220\*) was included in the Habitats Directive of the European Commission. These plant formations represent the maximum potential vegetation in a very restrictive arid environment, since it encompasses endemic, tropical, or Maghrebian floristic elements, and from other areas of the ancient Thetis Sea. In fact, the version of this community with *Gymnosporia senegalensis* (Lam.) Loes. [=*Maytenus senegalensis* (Lam.) Exell] constitutes extraordinarily singular flora formations in the Iberian southeast. These are unique communities in Europe and ecologically extremely valuable and, however, have been included among the Europe's most endangered habitats. The vast economic development experienced in South Spain based on the remarkable transformation of traditional farming patterns into a highly profitable agriculture that uses industrial production methods and the groundwater intensively (agriculture intensification and land-use change), in addition to urbanization without sustainable land planning, determines that European *G. senegalensis* populations are

*Fabián Martínez-Hernández, Francisco J. Pérez-García,* 

*Agustín Lahora, María E. Merlo and Juan F. Mota*

seriously threatened by severe habitat destruction and fragmentation.

**Keywords:** habitat fragmentation, Mediterranean Basin, priority coastal habitat,

Mediterranean arborescent scrubs with *Ziziphus* Mill. species have been coded as habitat 5220\* (arborescent matorral with *Ziziphus*) and included in the Habitats Directive of the European Commission since 1992 [1], which lists Europe's most endangered and vulnerable habitats. These plant communities, recognized in the Iberian Southeast, Cyprus, Sicily, and surrounding islands, are composed mainly by pre-desert deciduous scrub with *Ziziphus lotus* (L.) Lam. or *Gymnosporia senegalensis* (Lam.) Loes. [=*Maytenus senegalensis* (Lam.) Exell; =*Maytenus senegalensis* subsp. *europaeus* (Boiss.) Rivas Mart. ex Güemes & M.B. Crespo] and smaller specimens of *Periploca laevigata* Aiton subsp. *angustifolia* (Labill.) Markgraf, *Lycium intricatum* Boiss., *Asparagus horridus* L., *A. albus* L., *Withania frutescens* (Sims) Sweet, etc. The largest patches of these communities are distributed in the arid Iberian southeast under a xerophytic
