Mount Spundascia’s fen: how a microbotanical record sheds light on the last 3000 years of a subalpine landscape’s development

Laura Ferigato ¹, Giulia Furlanetto ², Renata Perego ¹, Marco Stefano Caccianiga ³, Roberto Comolli ⁴, Cesare Ravazzi ²

Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeoecology, CNR-IGAG, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126, Milano, Italy ¹, Laboratory of Palynology and Palaeoecology, CNR-IGAG, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126, Milano, Italy; NBFC - National Biodiversity Future Centre (Task 4.4.2 - Dynamic Process Analysis in Protected Areas) Palermo, 90133, Italy ², Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, Via G. Celoria 26, I-20133 Milano, Italy ³, University of Milano-Bicocca, Dept. of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy ⁴

Historical ecology and palaeoecology are essential for understanding the last millennia’s vegetation dynamics in relation to environmental changes and human activities, by reconstructing the chain of ecological/anthropogenic events that generated the current vegetation. We analysed co-registered proxies (fossil pollen, charcoal fragments, nutrients), retrieved from a subalpine fen in Valmalenco, Central Alps, to infer the main environmental transformations that led to the current larch-parkland landscape of Mount Spundascia. The primary vegetation was a mixed conifer forest of Pinus cembra, with subordinate Picea abies and Larix decidua. The primary forest was already affected by anthropogenic disturbance in the Final Bronze Age, when fertilized herbs and coprophilous spores indicate the presence pasture activities in the area. Anthropogenic disturbance favoured Larix’s expansion. In the Iron and Roman Ages, the forest was exploited for timber and charcoal. The Middle Ages hosted profound environmental changes for the area: from the 11th century the primary forest collapses, gradually substituted by a secondary forest (Pinus mugo, Juniperus). Probably, the primary forest was systematically removed, clearing space for pastures in the area (fertilized herbs’ increase) and exploiting charcoal kilns (pollen-slide charcoal’s increase), which were found in the study site’s surroundings. In the Modern Age, pasture is carried even within the fen, as indicated by high inorganic phosphorus content and coprophilous spores %. Modern pollen spectrum was obtained from moss polsters, revealing the dominance of Pinus mugo’s pollen in contemporary vegetation. Though bisaccate pollen grains are notoriously overrepresented, the comparison with the top-core sample, reveals a recent reforestation, led by Pinus mugo and secondly Larix, due to post-WWII abandonment of traditional pasture practices, which are partially still carried in the area.

Main author career stage: Master student

Contribution type: Talk

First choice session: 2. Ecology

Second choice session: 3. Biodiversity and global change