Vegetation
Within the UNESCO site of Amalfi Coast, it is possible to notice a high degree of biodiversity, an element which suggests the necessity and opportunity to pay much attention to problems of a conservative and management kind. The different habitats existing and reported on the territory, are situated within a landscape characterized by the multi-century work of transformation made by man who has fostered, directly or indirectly, some aspects of the vegetation of this area, to the detriment of others (Caneva et al., 2007).
From the vegetation point of view, the integration of bioclimatic, lithological and morphological information, allows to recognize rather homogeneous parts of the territory, approximately arranged according to bands, within which the main phytocoenotic types can be identified. According to this arrangement we can recognize what follows:
• A Mediterranean basal band, occupied by a sclerophyll vegetation, in which the prevailing specie is the Quercus ilex.
• A hilly band, pertaining to mixed deciduous woods, such as Acer opalus subsp. obtusatum, Quercus pubescens sl., Alnus cordata, Ostrya carpinifolia.
• A mountain band corresponding to the forest formations of mesophilic broad-leave tres in which the leading species is represented by the Fagus sylvatica.
Within each band the different types of vegetation develop themselves. They are characterized by their own ecological and structural connotation, belonging to different evolutionary stages, linked to each other in a temporal sense (meadows, garigues, shrubs, woods) and from a space point of view distributed according to climate, lithological and morphological parameters.
estratto da G. Caneva et al., L’ambiente naturale e le sue relazioni con l’uomo, in Piano di Gestione Costiera Amalfitana