Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests
The Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests is an ecoregion in the lands around the Aegean Sea. The ecoregion covers most of mainland Greece, the Aegean Islands, the western coast of Turkey, the southern Vardar river valley in North Macedonia, the southern Struma river valley at the extreme south-western corner of Bulgaria, as well as Greece's Heptanese Islands in the Ionian Sea.
The ecoregion has a Mediterranean climate, and is in the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.
Flora
The predominant plant communities are maquis, low shrublands, and pine forests.Maquis is woody shrubland characterized by low trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. Maquis species include strawberry tree, Arbutus andrachne, sweet bay, olive, carob, Erica arborea, and Spartium junceum. Maquis includes many aromatic plants, particularly species in the mint family.
Low shrublands, known in Greek as phrygana, are characterized by low aromatic shrubs and herbs, including Euphorbia acanthothamnos, Thymus capitatus, and species of Ballota, Cistus, Helichrysum, Phlomis, and Salvia. Phrygana is common on limestone soils, and in areas subject to frequent fires and heavy grazing.
Kermes oak and holm oak are found in maquis, and also form oak woodlands.
Forests of Turkish pine occur in Anatolia, forests of Aleppo pine are found in central Greece and the Peloponnese and Stone pine grows on stabilized coastal dunes on the Peloponnese.
The oriental sweetgum is endemic to a limited area of southwestern Turkey and the island of Rhodes. The largest remaining stands are near Köyceğiz. Bozpırnal oak is another endemic tree, native to the islands of Rhodes and Kos and adjacent southwestern coastal Turkey. It has sweet, edible acorns which are collected locally for coffee. The Oriental plane can be found in certain areas.
Fauna
Mammals in the ecoregion include wild boar, red fox, golden jackal, wolf, European badger, European hare, northern white-breasted hedgehog, southern white-breasted hedgehog, Eurasian red squirrel, Caucasian squirrel, and pine marten. The Eurasian lynx, European wildcat, and brown bear are now rare in the ecoregion.The ecoregion is important habitat for several limited-range bird species, including the eastern olivaceous warbler, olive-tree warbler, Rüppell's warbler, masked shrike, cinereous bunting, and Cretzschmar's bunting.
Characteristic birds of the maquis include the red-legged partridge, rock partridge, chukar partridge, eastern subalpine warbler, Rüppell's warbler, cirl bunting, rock bunting, and black-headed bunting.
Krüper's nuthatch is associated with Turkish pine forests in the ecoregion and neighboring ones. Other birds of the pine forests include common European forest species like the Eurasian wren, common blackbird, common chiffchaff, coal tit, Eurasian blue tit, great tit '', short-toed treecreeper, Eurasian jay, and common chaffinch.
Birds associated with the liquidambar forests of western Anatolia include the common nightingale, olivaceous warbler, and Cetti's warbler.