V. 81 N. 2s (2026): Atti della Conferenza Foreste vetuste e antichi alberi: un tesoro di natura, vita e cultura. Firenze 1 ottobre 2025 / Vallombrosa 2-3 ottobre 2025
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The oldest trees of the Mediterranean

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  • Jan Esper,
  • Gianluca Piovesan,
  • Marco Carrer,
  • Max C.A. Torbenson,
  • Ulf Büntgen
Jan Esper
Department of Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University, Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 21 - 55099 Mainz, Germany.
Gianluca Piovesan
Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, largo dell’Università snc - 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
Marco Carrer
Department of Land Environment Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, viale dell’Università 16 - 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy.
Max C.A. Torbenson
Department of Geography, Texas A&M University, 377 Houston Street, College Station - TX 77843-3357, USA.
Ulf Büntgen
Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Bělidla 986/4a - 60300 Brno, Czech Republic.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/ifm-1249

Pubblicato 2026-10-06

Parole chiave

  • old growth forests,
  • ancient tree,
  • tree rings,
  • dendrochronology,
  • Mediterranean basin,
  • climate change
    • ...Più
    Meno

Come citare

Esper, J., Piovesan, G., Carrer, M., Torbenson, M. C., & Büntgen, U. (2026). The oldest trees of the Mediterranean. L’Italia Forestale E Montana, 81(2s), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.36253/ifm-1249

Copyright (c) 2026 Jan Esper, Gianluca Piovesan, Marco Carrer, Max C.A. Torbenson, Ulf Büntgen

Creative Commons License

Questo lavoro è fornito con la licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale 4.0 Internazionale.

Abstract

The Mediterranean region hosts some of the oldest trees in Europe growing in high-elevation environments and reaching ages well beyond 800 years. We here present eight of these sites from the Atlas Mountains in the west to the Taurus Mountains in the east and discuss their potential for high-resolution climate reconstruction using dendrochronological techniques. Evidence from ancient trees plays a key role in placing the current temperature and precipitation dynamics into a long-term context and thereby providing a foundation of naturally forced climate variability that is needed to validate model-based 21st century projections. This is demonstrated in a case study using maximum latewood density measurements from Pinus heldreichii in northern Greece to reconstruct July-September temperatures back to 730 CE. While permission for sampling increment cores from ancient trees must be granted for scientists, we argue that these sites must be sheltered from any non-scientific use to keep these treasures of nature and life protected.

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