An increasing array of observations shows that European mountains are experiencing a period of intensified environmental transformation. However, the timing, rate and amplitude of these changes are only partly detectable by monitoring contemporary ecosystem dynamics. Too many ecological alterations occurred since Medieval permanent settlements, overriding part of the pristine (i.e., pre-Neolithic) ecosystem structure. More recent trajectories in land use promoted by industrial revolution were ultimately redirected, due to a fast abandonment since the Second World War and the last forty years of amplification in Global Warming. We suggest that land use changes observed since the mid- to late-19th century may provide one of the tipping points connecting earlier baselines with the contemporary active pressures on mountain ecosystems. This requires focusing on the timing, the rate of change, and the mutual interaction between climate and land-use variation with a decadal to centennial scale resolution. We discuss the contribution of paleoecology and historical ecology to assess contemporary dynamics through a case study on the last 1750 years of forest fires and livestock foraging in Valmalenco that combines co-registered microbotanical data, charcoal analyses, sediment lithology, mineral nutrients, modern pollen deposition, dendrochronological information, and documentary written records. The following ecological processes concern future strategies of nature conservation and rewilding: (i) slope denudation connected to fire events in the late Roman age; (ii) early medieval forest fires in pristine mixed conifer forest with Abies alba, nowadays eradicated; (iii) Late Medieval expansion of the foraging area for pastoralism, timberline depression and expansion of larch parklands, and preservation of old-growth larch individuals; (iv) Industrial Age and the post- World War II abandonment of traditional land uses and (v) the last forty years of increasing trend in Global Warming.
From early Medieval forest fires and livestock foraging to the current phase of global warming (Valmalenco, Italian Alps): hints for rewilding and nature conservation
Giulia Furlanetto;Renata Perego;Paolo Bertuletti;Cesare Ravazzi
2023
Abstract
An increasing array of observations shows that European mountains are experiencing a period of intensified environmental transformation. However, the timing, rate and amplitude of these changes are only partly detectable by monitoring contemporary ecosystem dynamics. Too many ecological alterations occurred since Medieval permanent settlements, overriding part of the pristine (i.e., pre-Neolithic) ecosystem structure. More recent trajectories in land use promoted by industrial revolution were ultimately redirected, due to a fast abandonment since the Second World War and the last forty years of amplification in Global Warming. We suggest that land use changes observed since the mid- to late-19th century may provide one of the tipping points connecting earlier baselines with the contemporary active pressures on mountain ecosystems. This requires focusing on the timing, the rate of change, and the mutual interaction between climate and land-use variation with a decadal to centennial scale resolution. We discuss the contribution of paleoecology and historical ecology to assess contemporary dynamics through a case study on the last 1750 years of forest fires and livestock foraging in Valmalenco that combines co-registered microbotanical data, charcoal analyses, sediment lithology, mineral nutrients, modern pollen deposition, dendrochronological information, and documentary written records. The following ecological processes concern future strategies of nature conservation and rewilding: (i) slope denudation connected to fire events in the late Roman age; (ii) early medieval forest fires in pristine mixed conifer forest with Abies alba, nowadays eradicated; (iii) Late Medieval expansion of the foraging area for pastoralism, timberline depression and expansion of larch parklands, and preservation of old-growth larch individuals; (iv) Industrial Age and the post- World War II abandonment of traditional land uses and (v) the last forty years of increasing trend in Global Warming.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
