Legacy effects of selective coppicing on forest regeneration in Bronze Age Italy.

High-resolution pollen and stratigraphic records from Terramare sites in northern Italy show oak-dominated woodlands regenerated via long-term selective coppicing cycles targeting specific broad-leaved trees.

• Why it matters: The work addresses whether temperate lowland forests can be treated as natural baselines, or whether past human management created lasting ecological legacies.
• What they did: Archaeological layers dated to ~3,600 years ago were analyzed using high-resolution pollen sequences and stratigraphic data to reconstruct repeated cutting-and-regrowth under sustained human disturbance.
• The result: Selective coppicing maintained woodland patches for centuries but also drove profound, partly irreversible transformations of soils and water systems, sometimes exceeding local sustainability thresholds.