Ecological behaviour of some Mediterranean plant species: scientific grounds for restoration

Abstract

As a basis for the restoration of degraded areas we propose vegetal restoration with indigenous species peculiar to the immediate environment of the area, taking into account their ecological requirements. By doing this, we will be able to foresee their future behaviour, improve their chances of success and cut the costs and guarantee adequate environmental management. For this purpose we took a number of samples in nearby sites which maintain well preserved shrub or forest vegetal communities, and in each of them we carried out a relevé of flowering plant species and estimated the values of 20 environmental variables. The PCA reveals the existence of two clearly distinct environments: hygrophilous and non-hygrophilous. We will concentrate on the non-hygrophilous. In this group, the most significant variables were topo—climatic gradient on the one hand and edapho—chemical gradient on de other hand. In conclusion, we mention the most suitable tree and shrub species for the restoration of each of the large environments of the study area.