Once upon a time there was a beech (in the plain)

Plants don’t have legs but they know how to move. During the last glaciations there were great plant migrations which from central Europe brought to Sicily, among others, the Birch and thesilver fir. Even the Beech tree falls among these plant migrants but is in a separate category, that of climbers.

In the last four thousand years this plant in Italy has disappeared from the plains and hills to take refuge in the mountains. A vertical leap due to both human pressure and climate change. Today the beech is very rare below 800 meters above sea level but it has not always been like this. A comparison of data from would demonstrate this archaeobotanyspatial images and some sporadic presences of the species (Fagus sylvatica) which has returned to colonizing the lower altitudes with the abandonment of agriculture of necessity.

In Italy, beech woods cover an area of ​​about one million hectares: this tree, one of the most widespread forest species nationwide, is present in all regions except Sardinia. It prefers humid environments between 800 and two thousand meters above sea level. Yet a research coordinated by the universities of Naples Federico II and Siena, recently published in the journal Science of the Total Environmentrevealed that in Italy with a Mediterranean climate, the potential areas where this plant could have grown have been reduced by about 48%, moving upwards by 200 meters.

To rebuild the distribution Fagus sylvaticathe study authors compared historical beech finds (in the form of timber, coals, leaves and fruit) with GIS and ecological modeling applications.

“Climate seems to have affected it displacement of the beech from an altitude of 300 meters onwards while lower down the impact of man has also been added. – explains Luciano Bosso, an ecologist from the Neapolitan university who conducted the study with the archaeobotanist Mauro Buonincontri. – Despite the Mediterranean climate of the last 4000 years, the systematic discovery of beech finds in archaeological sites at lower altitudes than its current distribution indicates that this tree was present in Italian Mediterranean forests, from the hills to the coast. Over time, the interference of human activities on forest ecosystems becomes more marked and favors the progressive degradation of the environment, which is now unable to guarantee the survival of species such as beech“.

In Italy there are still examples of low altitude beech woods who are referred to as depressed. They are plant relics of a climatic and historical era that no longer exists. There are some in Tuscany, many in Lazio, such as on Monte Venere or Monte Raschio, and the beech forest of the Gargano National Park is also worth mentioning. All natural areas that have recently become a UNESCO heritage site. In ancient times, the Esquiline hill in Rome also housed a sacred wood of this tree.

The research, which involved botanical archeology and spatial analysis, can be a valuable tool for developing new strategies of forest restoration. The beech, thanks to the abandonment of the high lands, in recent years has begun to spontaneously colonize the spaces available at lower altitudes. This return to the hilly environments it is due to the presence of single individuals, even isolated, which when ripe disperse the seeds without encountering obstacles. “By reconstructing the historical distribution of this plant in the Italian peninsula – the authors conclude – we could identify the areas below 600 meters above sea level that are more suitable for hosting this plant to help it return to its original environment”.