A recent research shows how the ancient forests of the Pollino, which lie between Basilicata and Calabria and have been a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage Site since 2017, resist extreme events caused by the changing climate such as prolonged periods of drought and rising average temperatures better than other ecosystems.

The centuries-old trees of the Pollino, despite their remarkable age ranging from three hundred to five hundred years, continue to show stable or even more sustained growth at higher altitudes. By continuing to grow, the trees also maintain the fundamental role of absorbing CO2 emissions. Starting at an altitude of 800 meters and reaching up to 2 thousand meters, the researchers analyzed four species: turkey oak, white spruce, beech and loricate pine.

The study compared the growth of adult trees and younger ones, discovering moreover that the latter do not show the same resistance, because young plants, being more stressed by climatic changes, show a sort of acceleration in growth, which is not a positive factor for these specimens. In the Pollino massif have been found some of the most long-lived trees, among which the oldest dated tree in Europe with 1,235 years.