Renon BOL1 - Italy

Already in the remote past the area hosted a forest cover. In a soil cross-section at a depth between 75/80 and 85/95 cm macroscopic traces of carbonized wood were found: probably evidence of an ancient fire which destroyed the vegetative cover during the immediate post-glacial era: 7577 B.C. (dating using 14C). Analyses on the wood show that the tree population of that time was made up of purely light-demanding species: Scots pine, larch and birch. The present (climax) forest stand (age 120-140 years) consist mainly of the typical sub-alpine tree-species: norway spruce, cembran pine. In the shrubs layer principally bilberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea and Vaccinium mirtillus). Graminaceus patchy cover with Deschampsia flexuosa. Presence of Hieracium murorum, Melampyrum sylvaticum, Arnica montana, Potentilla tormentilla, Fragaria vesca, Phiteuma spicatum. Grazing was in the recent past a major problem, whose consequences, root damage and soil compactage, now appears after many decades in the form of root-rot diseases (e.g Armillaria).