Old But Gold

Restoring old-growth forests to build effective climate-change mitigating landscapes

A new National Geographic Society funded research project (2023 – 2025) aimed at determining the role of old-growth forests and old trees in the carbon cycle and climate-change mitigation, assessing the contribution of different forest types along environmental gradients.
The Project integrates tree survey measurements, tree-ring and soil sampling to quantify the main aspects of forest contribution to the carbon (C) cycle:

• C density in living and dead biomass, and in soil;
• C time persistence in both trees and soil;
• C removal rate by the tree community.
• It will also evaluate the stability of the C sink under the climate variability of the last decades.

Expected results

• Develop a model to quantify old-growth forest contribution to climate-change mitigation along elevation gradients in C-S Europe.
• Disseminate the unique role of natural forests and old trees for nature conservation and ecological restoration.

Principal Investigator

Prof. Alfredo Di Filippo (DAFNE, Università dellaTuscia, Viterbo, IT)

Project Members

Climbing the oldest Angiosperm trees in Europe

Age vs. size effects on beech shape and growth under contrasting bioclimates

A National Geographic Society funded research project aimed at climbing the oldest and largest beech trees in a network of old-growth UNESCO beech forests from the Austrian Alps to the Southern Apennines to precisely describe their entire structure, biomass, and growth.

The focus is on understanding how much the increase in size and age in old beech trees expose them to a higher mortality risk, especially in the context of the current climate change.

This research aims at improving our knowledge of the factors affecting tree longevity and mortality, assess the climate-change impact on the survival of the large old trees, and evaluate the conservation status of large old trees under contrasting environmental conditions.

Principal Investigator: Alfredo Di Filippo
Project Members: Luca Di Fiore, Michele Baliva, Andrea Barbieri, Andrea Di Cerbo, Emanuele Presutti Saba
Project Partners

Kalkalpen National Park

Parco Nazionale Foreste Casentinesi

Reparto Carabinieri Biodiversità Pratovecchio

Comune di Oriolo Romano

Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise

Reparto Carabinieri Biodiversità Foresta Umbra

Parco Nazionale del Gargano