The “Mediterranean Forest”

Marta Mariotti Lippi, Anna Maria Mercuri, Bruno Foggi

The “Mediterranean Forest”

Číslo: 2/2018
Periodikum: Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica

Klíčová slova: floristic studies, palynology, sclerophyllous, Quercus species, Meso-Mediterranean

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Anotace: Starting from the multifaceted meaning of “Mediterranean”, this thematic review wishes to reconnect

the palaeobotanical with the phytogeographical approach in the reconstruction of the Mediterranean
Forest of the past. The use of the term “Mediterranean” is somewhat ambiguous in its common use, and
has not an unequivocal meaning in different research fields. In botany, geographical-floristic studies
produce maps based on the distribution of the plant species; floristic-ecological studies, produce maps
that deal with the distribution of the plant communities and their relationships with different habitats.
This review reports on the different use of the term “Mediterranean” in geographical or floristic
studies, and on the way climate and plant distributions are used to define the Mediterranean area. The
Mediterranean Forest through the palynological records is then shortly reported on. Pollen analysis
may be employed to reconstruct the Mediterranean Forest of the past but a number of problems make
this a difficult task: low pollen preservation, lack of diagnostic features at low taxonomical level,
and low pollen production of species which form the Mediterranean Forests. Variable images of this
vegetation are visible in different landscapes, but the Mediterranean Forest often remains a sort of
“ghost forest” in pollen spectra from the Mediterranean Region.