Ecological context
A system, not a backdrop
A guide to the landscape, its changes and ways to care for it. This profile covers a broad habitat type; local data need site-specific research.
Habitat guide
How it works
Environmental conditions
Dehesas have been favoured on gentle terrain where farming is poorly productive, on predominantly acidic or neutral substrates with little organic matter. They develop mainly where early or late frosts are infrequent and do not routinely hinder tree fruiting. These conditions describe a tendency, not one soil shared by every dehesa.
Distribution and scope
This habitat covers extensive areas of the central-western and southwestern Iberian Peninsula. This profile concerns evergreen dehesas of type 6310, dominated chiefly by Quercus suber and Quercus rotundifolia; it does not cover every Mediterranean-climate grassland.
Structure
Vegetation forms a mosaic of grassland, scrub and cultivated areas with scattered trees. Livestock pressure influences shrub development; grasslands vary with soil, management and soil moisture. The structure results from thinning Mediterranean woodland and from forestry, livestock, farming and hunting uses, rather than an undisturbed closed forest.
Linked species are documented examples for a specific area. The list is not complete, and the absence of a species does not prove that it is not present.
Evidence base
Sources for this profile
References for checking the processes and pressures described. Regional sources do not make this overview a local inventory.
- 01Manual de Habitat de Spain: 6310 Dehesas perennifolias www.miteco.gob.es