Woody plant species present in semiarid Ziziphus lotus scrublands (Habitat 5220*, EU) in the southeast of Iberian Peninsula

The community of woody species (shrubs and trees), with the capacity to act as nurse plants, was sampled in three habitat subtypes of Ziziphus lotus (Habitat 5220*, Habitat Directive UE): i) habitat dominated by Ziziphus lotus individuals (ZIZ) ; ii) habitat dominated by Maytenus senegalensis with Ziziphus lotus (ZIZMAY); iii) habitat dominated by Chamaerops humilis with Ziziphus lotus (ZIZCHA). Each habitat subtype was sampled at 8 locations using 25 [10x10 m] sampling squares (8 locations x 25 sampling squares = 200 squares per habitat subtype x 3 subtypes = 600 total squares). In each square, the list of woody plant species, with the capacity to act as nurses, and their covers (% or m2) was recorded. The squares were randomly distributed, trying to cover the largest possible area within each locality to avoid sampling bias. Rarefaction curves were used to calculate the diversity estimates per habitat subtype showed in .csv files (n for rarefaction curves per habitat subtype = n sampled squares per habitat subtype x 2 = 200 x 2 = 400). iNEXT package (Hsieh, Ma and Chao, 2020) of R sofware (R Core, 2021) was used to calculated the summaries and diversity estimates showed in .csv files.