The Mediterranean Floristic Region: High Diversity of Plants and Vegetation Types

Abstract

One of the richest hotspots of the world is the Mediterranean floristic region with over 24,000 species distributed in the large territory (2,300,000km2) of the Mediterranean Basin. High numbers of genera (around 2000) and families (around 200) have been recorded, which gives this region the richest figures of the five mediterranean floristic regions of the world. All these taxa group together into numerous habitats (c. 150) and vegetation types brought about by main abiotic (climate, soil types and altitudinal gradients) and biotic (autoecology and ecological interactions) characteristics. This chapter summarizes floristic and vegetation richness over the last geological epochs, considering historical biogeography and past climatic events, which have shaped the distribution of plants in southern Europe and northern Africa. Time-calibrated phylogenies and the fossil record help interpret a long period of extinctions of Tertiary lineages in the Neogene giving the opportunity of speciation to other plant groups. Vegetation arranged into five vegetation belts (thermo-Mediterranean, meso-Mediterranean, supra-Mediterranean, oro-Mediterranean, cryoro-Mediterranean) is understood as a dynamic ecological succession in which vegetation transition occurs in a predictable series of grasslands, shrublands and woodlands.