The edaphic environments are those whose particular soil conditions inhibit growth of plant life. This are environments with particularly restrictive soils because their physical or chemical characteristics, such as the high salinity, extreme pH or special texture of the substrate. In this type of soils only a few specially adapted plants are able to thrive, plants that would otherwise form the basis for an extremely unique ecosystem, full of endemic species in all its forms.
Although the animal species are not as tied to the vagaries of soil as plants, we can find, however, a considerable number of endemic species among arthropods, mainly. The specificity of the fauna to the type of soil will be much higher in certain environments, such as sands, salt marshes or rupestrian habitats.
Other less widespread but no less interesting environments, are those associated with some kind of rocky outcrops, such as the calcareous formations, among which the serpentine rocks are remarkable for its high percentage of endemic plants, or the gypsophilous outcrops, in its various forms of gypsum minerals.
Edaphic ecosystems are, in short, a group of especially unique environments form the biological point of view. Their limited extend and high rates of endemics further enhance this uniqueness, and provide reason enough to include them as priority elements in our plans for biodiversity conservation.
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