Diversity and Community Structure

Similar drivers across mediterranean-type climate (MTC) regions have selected for plants with comparable traits (Chapters 3 and 6). This has resulted in the assembly of MTC region plant communities (groups of interacting populations of organisms) that are broadly similar, both structurally and functionally. However, there are also many different types of communities within MTC regions that may be quite divergent from one another even though they occur within a single region. These differences in community types also reveal both similarities and differences among the different MTC regions. This chapter briefly introduces and describes the composition and structure of the main types of plant communities that are found within MTC regions, including the iconic evergreen sclerophyllous shrublands, known as mediterranean-type vegetation (MTV), and other types of shrublands (drought-deciduous soft-leaved shrubs, desert shrublands along arid margins), grasslands, woodlands, and forests.