Long-Term Responses of Mediterranean Mountain Forests to Climate Change, Fire and Human Activities in the Northern Apenn
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Long-Term Responses of Mediterranean Mountain Forests to Climate Change, Fire and Human Activities in the Northern Apennines (Italy) Ce´sar Morales-Molino,1,2* Marianne Steffen,1 Ste´phanie Samartin,1 Jaqueline F. N.van Leeuwen,1 Daniel Hu¨rlimann,1 Elisa Vescovi,1 and Willy Tinner1 1 Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland; 2Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, A Rame´l 18, CH-6593 Cadenazzo, Switzerland
ABSTRACT Fagus sylvatica (beech) dominates the montane forests of the Apennines and builds old-growth high-conservation value stands. However, recent severe drought-induced diebacks raise concern on the future persistence of these forests and of Southern European mesophilous woodlands overall, growing at their dry edge. To explore the history of Apennine beech-dominated forests, we draw on the multiproxy paleoecological record from Lago Verdarolo, which includes a robust vegetation-independent temperature reconstruction. Numerical techniques are used to investigate the drivers of long-term Mediterranean mountain forest dynamics. Specifically, we focus on disen-
Received 30 June 2020; accepted 1 November 2020 Electronic supplementary material: The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00587-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Author Contributions W.T., C.M.-M., S.S. and E.V. conceived and designed the study; M.S., D.H. and S.S. produced the paleoecological data supervised by J.F.N.v.L. and E.V.; C.M.-M. and M.S. analyzed the data; C.M.-M. and W.T. led the writing of the manuscript with contributions of the rest of co-authors; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript. *Corresponding author; e-mail: [email protected]
tangling the ecological factors that caused the shift from high-diversity mixed forests to beech-dominated stands and on assessing the occurrence of legacy effects on present-day forests. Abrupt climate change largely drove vegetation dynamics during the Late Glacial and Early Holocene. Species-rich mixed Abies alba (silver fir) forests dominated about 10,500—5500 years ago, under rather dry and warmer-than-today conditions (+ 1—2 C) and limited fire occurrence. Cooler and moister summers and increasing fire activity caused declines in several fire-sensitive temperate deciduous trees (for example, Ulmus, Tilia, Fraxinus) and favored the establishment of fir-beech forests around 5500 years ago. Further enhancement of fire activity and farming around 2000 years ago led to local Abies alba extinction and forest impoverishment. We conclude that the currently widespread monospecific Apennine beech forests are the result of multi-millennial land-use intensification superimposed on Late Holocene cooling and moistening. Given their higher drought-tolerance compared to beech stands, reviving ancient species-rich mixed fir forests represents a feasible and ‘tested’ possibility to adapt f
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