Forest ecology and fire history of the mixed conifer forest belt in the Italian Alps from late Roman fires to the 20th century under cultural and climate pressure.

We reconstructed vegetation, fire andwatershed history during the Late Roman-Early Middle Ages and in the lastthree centuries in a mixed conifer forest forming the middle mountain elevational belt in the inner Alpine region,analyzing co-registered micro-botanical data, charcoal particles, sediment lithology, nutrients, and modern pollendeposition from a high-resolution peat record in Valmalenco (Italian Alps). During Late Roman Age the sitehosted a dump mixed conifer forest dominated by Picea abies and Abies alba on peaty forest soil, locally affectedby fires which also triggered episodes of hillslope denudation. Fire frequency increases during EarlyMiddle Agesdry and warmphases, favoring Alnus viridis and Larix, while Abies alba and Alnus glutinosa type maintained a mainrole in the pre- and post-fire. Specifically, Abies alba, nowadays eradicated fromthe Valmalencowatershed,withstoodthe local regime of lowintensity surface fires for more than a millennium, fromthe Late Roman throughoutthe Early Middle Ages. Larix, Alnus viridis and Fraxinus excelsior abundance in modern vegetation is ascribed toeffects of intensified disturbance in the Early Modern Age, and to further woodland thickening triggered byfire suppression and abandonment after the SecondWorld War.