The Peyne study area is located in the Hérault department, Languedoc, southern France, approximately 60 km west of Montpellier. Central coordinates are 43°33'N, 03°08'E.
The area is characterised by a sub-humid Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and cool winters. The area has experienced rural depopulation over the last century and farmlands are reverting to shrublands and woodlands. The area is located at the fringe of the Massif Central and is characterised by various geological substrates ranging from sandstone formations, limestone plateaus, dolomite formations, volcanic tuffs and volcanic basalt outflows. On these geological substrates various lithological substrates are found like regosols, lithosols, brown soils and calcareous soils. The large variation at short distances in the geological and lithological substrates, of elevation, climatic factors and human disturbance is responsible for a wide range of growing conditions and hence, a large variety of vegetation types. The natural vegetation in the area is a degraded stage of the evergreen forest, consisting of shrubby formations named 'matorral'. Scattered around the area vineyards and orchards are found. The Peyne area was one of the research locations of the European Degradation Monitoring project. Since then, many datasets have been collected.
The following datasets are available for the Peyne Area:
Downloads &
Links |
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| La Peyne Dataset (screen resolution) | ||
| La Peyne Dataset (print resolution) | ||
| PhD Thesis: Chapter 3, Study area and data description | ||
| Photographs of the study area | Photo Gallery | |
During several fieldworks I recorded the species observed on the measurement plots. When possible I took detailed photographs for indentification. These photographs are available on the list of species webpage.
