Editing Sclerophyll (section)

==Distribution==
The zone of the sclerophyll vegetation lies in the border area between the [[subtropics]] and the [[temperate zone]], approximately between the 30th and 40th degree of [[latitude]] (in the northern hemisphere also up to the 45th degree of latitude). Their presence is limited to the coastal western sides of the continents, but nonetheless can typical in any regions of a continent with scarce annual precipitation or frequent seasonal droughts and poor soils that are heavily leached.<ref>Susanne Heise: Vegetation zones: The zone of the evergreen hardwood plants, in TERRA-Online/Realschule on Klett.de, Klett, Leipzig 2003, version January 26, 2006, accessed on December 17, 2020.</ref>

The sclerophyll zone often merges into [[temperate deciduous forest]]s towards the poles, on the coasts also into [[temperate rainforest]]s and towards the equator in hot [[semi-desert]]s or deserts. The Mediterranean areas, which have a very high [[biodiversity]], are under great pressure from the population. This is especially true for the Mediterranean region since ancient times. Through [[overexploitation]] (logging, grazing, agricultural use) and frequent fires caused by people, the original forest vegetation is converted. In extreme cases, the hard-leaf vegetation disappears completely and is replaced by open rock [[heath]]s.

[[File:Spiny forest 1, Ifaty, Madagascar.jpg|thumb|Sclerophyll shrubland in southwestern Madagascar]]

Some sclerophyll areas are closer to the equator than the Mediterranean zone—for example, the interior of [[Madagascar]], the dry half of [[New Caledonia]], the lower edge areas of the [[Madrean pine-oak woodlands]] of the [[Sierra Madre Occidental|Mexican highlands]] between {{Convert|800 and 1800|m}} or around {{Convert|2000|m|abbr=on}} high plateaus of the [[Asir Mountains]] on the western edge of the [[Arabian Peninsula]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Atlas zur Biogeographie |date=1976 |publisher=Bibliograph. Inst |isbn=978-3-411-00303-7 |editor-last=Schmithüsen |editor-first=Josef |series=Meyers großer physischer Weltatlas |location=Mannheim |pages=19, 43}}</ref>

===Land use===
While the winter rain areas of America, South Africa and Australia, with an unusually large variety of food [[crop]]s, were ideal gathering areas for [[hunter-gatherer]]s until [[European colonization]], agriculture and [[cattle breeding]] spread in the Mediterranean area since the [[Neolithic]], which permanently changed the face of the landscape. In the sclerophyll regions near the coast, permanent crops such as olive and wine cultivation established themselves; However, the landscape forms that characterize the degenerate shrubbery and shrub heaths [[Maquis shrubland|maquis]] and [[garrigue]] are predominantly a result of [[grazing]] (especially with goats).

In the course of the last millennia, the original vegetation in almost all areas of this vegetation zone has been greatly changed by the influence of humans. Where the plants have not been replaced by [[vineyard]]s and olive [[grove (nature)|grove]]s, the [[maquis shrubland|maquis]] was the predominant form of vegetation on the Mediterranean. The maquis has been degraded in many places to the low shrub heather, the garrigue. Many plant species that are rich in aromatic oils belong to both vegetation societies. The diversity of the original sclerophyll vegetation in the world is high to extremely high (3,000–5,000 species per hectare).<ref>Klaus Müller-Hohenstein: The geo-ecological zones of the Earth. In: ''Geography and School''. Issue 59, Bayreuth 1989.</ref>