Historical Deforestations and Forest Resilience

The vegetation reconstruction disclosed in the former chapters allowed the definition of three major deforestation/recovery (DR) cycles during Roman, Medieval, and Modern times. Each DR cycle is assessed based on three organization levels: overall forests, types of forests, and individual forest taxa. In general, the forests under study demonstrated remarkable resilience, recovering nearly entirely after each major deforestation event (bulk resilience). The critical tipping point beyond which the forests would have irreversibly disappeared from the region was never reached, even with deforestation exceeding 60%. The identified forest types (conifer, deciduous, and sclerophyll) endured over time, displaying similar heterogeneous patterns with minor spatial adjustments (mosaic resilience). On an individual level, the primary forest taxa experienced slight variations in their relative abundances, consistently within the same attraction domains (community resilience). The high resilience observed in these Pyrenean forests is credited to the influence of metapopulation and metacommunity processes and mechanisms in a highly dynamic and patchy environment. Conservation efforts should prioritize maintaining these spatial patterns and associated ecological dynamics.