Dry heath

Heaths dominated by sub-shrubs of the genera Erica, Calluna, Vaccinium and Daboecia, with some species of woody, often spiny, legumes of the genera Ulex and Genista, grasses and other ligneous plants, occurring on siliceous soils, often podsolised but rarely or never waterlogged. This habitat has its main distribution in Atlantic Europe, a region of oceanic climate with high precipitation and a low continentality, with some extensions towards interior areas of the continent in some siliceous mountains and on sandy plains. To the north, where it extends to the western coasts of Norway, it behaves like a thermophilic unit under the warming effect of the Gulf Stream and, in the south, like a montane high moisture-demanding vegetation. Its optimum, in terms of floristic richness, is probably related with glacial refugia and is in SW Atlantic Europe, particularly in the northern and western Iberian Peninsula, areas from which the habitat has extended outwards. From NW Morocco, where it is found in the rainy areas of the western Rif, its range encompasses western and northern Iberia, western France, British Isles, Belgium, The Netherlands, NW Germany, Denmark, and SW Sweden, with some important occurrences in the inner Central European siliceous mountain systems. These heaths are transitional to subalpine and boreal heathlands of the Vaccinio-Piceetea (type F2.2a), common in northern Scotland and Scandinavia, while in the south there are transitions to the Mediterranean siliceous scrubs of the Cisto-Lavanduletea. In Central Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary) several pannonic species are associated with this habitat.

In most situations out of its primary stations, this habitat is associated with a particular well-defined and intense disturbance regime. Since early times (probably since the Neolithic), mowing, burning and grazing have been the main practices carried out by humans on heathlands and nowadays rural abandonment and the relaxation of such activities have triggered secondary succession and led to its disappearance in many locations. Many of the areas formerly and nowadays still covered by heaths are secondary stands resultong from such human interventions. Primary stations of this habitat type are most probably linked to the coastal cliffs of Atlantic SW Europe, where shallow soils in the rocky habitats provide the adequate conditions for preventing succession and even an adequate refuge for survival during Pleistocenic ice ages. Dry heaths form dense sub-scrubs in which dominance is dependent on the type of management: high fire frequency combined with grazing leads to the dominance of graminoids, even to a sort of grassland with small heaths; regular mowing without grazing leads to the dominance of heathers, gorses and ferns (particularly Pteridium aquilinum), in a treatment much oriented to obtaining large quantities of vegetative material for cattle bedding and for manuring. The model of management is particular for each of the regions involved and adapted to the natural conditions and to the associations present in those places.

In the vast range through which dry heaths develop, there can be quartzic coastal non-dune sands with Calluna vulgaris and Empetrum nigrum in northern Europe, mesophile or xerophile heaths on siliceous, podsolic soils in moist Atlantic and sub-Atlantic climates of plains and low mountains of Southern, Western, Central and Northern Europe and true coastal heaths occurring on maritime cliff tops where they survive under the strong wind conditions, low salt spray and low temperature oscillation regime determined by the proximity to the sea, originating typical prostrate maritime formations.

Indicators of good quality:

• dense scrubs with many herbaceous plants: ferns, grasses, etc, without having a clear dominance of one particular species, nor heathers neither gorses or grasses.
• evenness in the species populations, especially characteristic fauna, depending on microclimate and horizontal and vertical structure
• presence of rare and/or threatened species
• Absence of exotic species
• Absence of nitrophilous species
• Absence of trees and tall shrubs invading with lack of management
• Presence of lichens and/or bryophytes
• Presence of old Calluna shrubs with cycles of regeneration
• Signs of traditional management including a low frequency fire, mowing, grazing, etc.

Synthesis of Red List assessment

Confidence in the assessment

Pressures and threats