The European Red List of Habitats describes 40 different habitat types of
heathlands and shrubs. It also classifies the degree of endangerment of the different
terrestrial and marine habitats and gives an overview of the distribution and endangerment of each habitat type. The heathland and shrub habitats of the Mediterranean,
Macaronesaian and Atlantic Regions are very diverse, with 13% of the described
habitats classified as vulnerable. These occur in different regions of Europe (Table 2)
(Janssen et al. 2016).
An example of a vulnerable habitat is dry heath (F4.2) (Fig. 2), one of the most
important and widespread heathland habitats in Western Europe with a current
estimated total area of 25,822 km
2 (Janssen et al. 2016), a high proportion of
Table 2 Endangered heath and shrubland habitats of Europe (Janssen et al. 2016; VU vulnerable,
EN endangered)
Code
Habitat type
Red List category EU 28+
F3.1d
Balkan-Anatolian submontane genistoid scrub
VU
F4.1
Wet heath
VU
F4.2
Dry heath
VU
F5.5
Thermomediterranean scrub
VU
F8.1
Canarian xerophytic scrub
VU
F8.2
Madeiran xerophytic scrub
EN
Fig. 2 Dry heathland dominated by Calluna vulgaris in N Germany (photographed by the author)
Heathland, Scrub and Savanna: Overview, Recent Trends and Outlook
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