Ruderal vegetation

This habitat appears where human or domestic animals are a decisive ecological factor that filters the plant communities that grow there. Ruderal vegetation is typically associated with intensively grazed fields, abandoned crops, subnitrophilous meadows, roadsides, wastelands and rubble piles.

Ruderal environments are well represented in the CBMS network. They amount to a large percentage of the sampled habitats and are characterized by very different conditions. This favours the great diversity of butterflies that can be found there (they represent the second most diverse habitat in the CBMS network). Butterfly communities are diverse and include clear generalist species such as Carcharodus alceae, Lycaena phlaeas, Polyommatus icarus and Pieris rapae, but also many more local and scarce butterflies such as Parnassius mnemosyne, Chazara briseis, Danaus chrysippus, Gegenes nostrodamus and Argynnis pandora.

Species that have been found in the habitat within the CBMS network are shown in descending order of preference. The Highlights tab indicates those species with ≥ 5% of their total abundance (standardized to 100 m) concentrated in that habitat. The Species List tab displays a table with the percent density of each species in the habitat (compared to the rest of the CBMS habitat types). Transects shows in descending order the percentage cover of this habitat type for each itinerary in the CBMS network, with the number of botanical characterizations available in the Years column. The Communities tab lists the CORINE codes and names of the plant communities that have been included in this habitat type. This table also gives the area (in m²) occupied by each plant community in the network as a whole.

• Highlights (138)
• Species (154)
• Transects (202)
• CORINE communities (11)

Illustrations by Richard Lewington from Tolman & Lewington (1997) Butterflies of Britain and Europe, translated and published in Spanish by Lynx Edicions.

References

• Bueno, D., Ballesteros, E., Masalles, R.M., Martí, E., 2013. Atles dels Ecosistemes dels Països Catalans. Història Natural dels Països Catalans v.13. Enciclopèdia Catalana