62.4 - Dry inland cliffs

Classification des habitats du Paléarctique (2001)

Description

Noncoastal cliffs and exposed rocks of nondesert regions of the Palaearctic. At high altitudes and high latitudes, they may be devoid of vascular vegetation; they are then usually colonized by lichen crusts and "ink stains". At lower altitudes in the mountains, as well as in Mediterranean and boreal regions, they comprise, besides lichen communities and bare surfaces, fissure communities of units 62.1 and 62.2. In nemoral and steppe lowland and hills, these specialized fissure communities are very impoverished, reduced to the extremely paucispecific communities of units 62.1B and 62.29; they share the cliffs with debris sward communities of unit 34.11, more evolved grassland communities of unit 34.35, sometimes 34.31, 34.33 or 34.341, and lacunar shrub formations of unit 31.8.

Bibliographie

Devillers P., Devillers-Terschuren J. & Vander Linden C., 2001. PHYSIS Palaearctic Habitat Classification Database. Updated to 10 December 2001. Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles, Bruxelles. (Source)

Barry and Ives, 1974; Bird, 1974; Caine, 1974; Ellenberg, 1988: 446-455, 484-485.