This study analyzed with dendrochronology 177 Heldreich’s pines growing on the Pollino Massif in southern Italy for understanding climatic and human impacts on old trees. Most of the large-diameter trees currently living became established in the late Medieval to Renaissance periods under a snowy wet climate and low anthropic influence. Millennium-old (i.e., > 900 years of age) trees in remote sites escaped Medieval human impacts, then a wave of pine stands established in the late 14th and 16th centuries following recurrent human plague epidemics. Stem growth histories showed that both millennium-old and the majority of century-old trees grew along similar trajectories. These old trees have survived long-lasting climatic reversals, clearly a sign of their resilience to extreme events. Cliff habitats played a strategic environmental role for tree conservation during periods of land exploitation; such biodiversity refugia may serve as stepping stones for rewilding mountain landscapes. In recent decades, land abandonment following the collapse of sheep-herding, together with climate warming, have led to a new pulse of tree recruitment. Since 1850, low-frequency variability (50-70-year periods) in tree growth has been in synchrony with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Recently observed growth increases counter widespread reports of tree and forest decline in Mediterranean environments, and suggest that extreme longevity does not necessarily reduce stem increment. Discovering, studying, and preserving primeval trees in forest landscapes remains a priority for biodiversity conservation in the Anthropocene. Heldreich’s pine resilience to current global changes bodes well for sustainable development in the Mediterranean mountains they inhabit, and similar studies are needed for threatened habitats and iconic trees of other ecoregions in order to assess their probable survival into the future.

这项研究采用树状年代学分析了177 Heldreich的松树生长在意大利南部的Pollino地块上，以了解气候和人类对老树的影响。当前生存的大多数大直径树木是在中世纪晚期至文艺复兴时期建立的，在下雪的潮湿气候和低人类活动影响下。偏远地区的千年古树（即大于900年的树）逃脱了中世纪的人类影响，然后在14世纪末和16世纪末的人类瘟疫流行之后建立了一道松林。茎的生长历史表明，无论是千年树还是大多数百年树，都是沿着相似的轨迹生长的。这些老树在长期的气候逆转中幸免于难，这清楚地表明了它们抵御极端事件的能力。悬崖生境在土地开发阶段对树木的保护起着战略性的环境作用；这样的生物多样性避难所可以充当野外山地景观的垫脚石。近几十年来，随着放牧羊群的崩溃以及气候变暖，土地被遗弃，引发了新一轮的树木采伐。自1850年以来，树木生长的低频变化（50-70年周期）一直与大西洋多年代际振荡同步。最近观察到的增长增加了与地中海环境中树木和森林砍伐的广泛报道相抵触的迹象，并表明极端长寿并不一定会减少茎的增加。在森林景观中发现，研究和保存原始树木仍然是人类世世时期生物多样性保护的优先事项。