Pindus Mountains mixed forests

Category: Forest Biomes.

Geographic Location: Europe.

Summary: The mixed forests of the Pindus Mountains offer a glimpse into the human activities of ancient and classical Greece, and the former biodiversity of the lowland Mediterranean basin.

Altered by millennia of human activity, the remaining flora and fauna of the Mediterranean Sea basin reflect only a fraction of prehistoric biodiversity. Due to geographical remoteness and the ancient Greek respect for high-altitude vegetation, the remnants of a once-flourishing mixed forest of pine, oak, beech, and fir has survived on a distinct landform, the Pindus Mountains, also known as the “backbone of continental Greece.” The Pindus Mountains mixed forests provide a significant contrast to one of the globe’s highest concentrations of historical deforestation, which has occurred across the expanse of lowland Greece.

The Pindus Mountain range is located in northern Greece and southern Albania. The maximum elevation is found at Mount Smolikas at 8,650 feet (2,637 meters).

The climate here is predominately mediterranean, with cooler, alpine mediterranean temperatures at higher elevations. The area is characterized by average annual rainfall of 47 inches (120 centimeters), but at high altitudes this can be more than 79 inches (200 centimeters). Snow typically falls in the mountains during the winter months, and the minimum average temperatures are below freezing. Pindus is sometimes referred to as the southern part of the greater Balkan range. It extends across some 15,300 square miles (40,000 square kilometers).

Flora and Fauna

From Albania to the Gulf of Corinth, the limestone ridges of the Pindus Mountains provide sanctuary for the majority of Greece’s remaining timber. Black pine (Pinus nigra) dominates other species from 1,640 to 6,230 feet (500 to 1,900 meters); Balkan pine (Pinus heldrecheii) commonly coexists and grows up to 7,870 feet (2,400 meters). Several species of fir cover the northern Pindus, including the Cephalonian fir (Abies cephalonica) and the silver fir (Abies pectinata), and both thrive at elevations up to 6,560 feet (2,000 meters). An economically significant tree, the Valonea oak (Quercus aegilops), has served as a source of vegetable dye and accompanies a multitude of tall oak varieties.

At altitudes above 4,920 feet (1,500 meters), perhaps the most common arboreal species in the continent—the European beech (Fagus sylvatica)—grows in sparse numbers due to the calcareous soils of the Pindus. The European horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), found among the mixed conifer and broadleaf forest, is native only to Greece and Albania. Additionally, juniper, sycamore, poplar, and cypress complete the extensive forests of the Pindus range.

As a result of the extensive duration of human-driven forest depletion here, faunal diversity remains low except for the extremely variegated bird population. Pelicans, herons, spoonbills, and egrets inhabit the montane lakes of the Pindus. Other woodlands species include woodpeckers, thrush, blackbirds, and nightingales.

Large wild mammals are scarce; however, brown bears (Ursus arctos), wolves (Canis lupus), and jackals (Canis aureus) persist in limited numbers.

Human Impact

In ancient Greece, people worshipped woodland gods and spirits, demonstrating a familiarity with forests and arguably illustrating an abundance of woodlands. In particular, Greeks revered the oak tree and associated the species with Zeus, the god of sky, rain, and thunder. The correlation derived from the common understanding of Zeus residing atop the Greek mountains where the oak trees grow. Furthermore, the classical poet Homer’s works detail a forested region with abundant olive, oak, cedar, and pine trees.

However, human challenges to Pindus Mountain vegetation, including deforestation, initiated as early as 6,000 b.c.e. The combination of agriculture and livestock grazing threatened forest proliferation; woodlands were cleared to accommodate both methods of human subsistence, fueling population growth in city-states. Moreover, the forests served as a source of fuel, and approximately 90 percent of timber consumption satisfied fuel needs during the classical period, circa 500–300 b.c.e.

Deforestation for the purpose of shipbuilding—a common practice of all classical Western civilizations jockeying for control of Mediterranean resources—further exacerbated timber scarcity and subsequent soil erosion. Consequently, historical forest-clearing and loss of soil have contributed to a cycle of frequent, often prolonged periods of aridity that have prevented natural regeneration of the mixed forests, which are now found only at higher altitudes. Scrub vegetation replaced the former stands of evergreens and deciduous trees that once covered most of the Greek landscape at the middle and lower elevations.

Although the Pindus Mountains have escaped modern-era urbanization, human encroachment continues to threaten the fragile ecoregion. The largest urban center in the area, Ioannina, contains a population of 50,000, but most settlements are agricultural villages of fewer than 200 residents. Mining, road construction, and illegal logging continue the tradition of deforestation. Likewise, mountain tourism intensifies forest degradation.

From antiquity to the 21st century, humans have consistently transformed the Mediterranean basin landscape and consequently affected flora, fauna, and climate. The old-growth mixed forests of the Pindus Mountains remain in jeopardy despite the global awareness of Greece’s historical failures in forest management. The Pindus Mountains mixed forests and the adjacent scrub vegetation of lower-elevation terrain have, however, become a model in forestry and in the natural-resource dialogue for catastrophic outcomes resulting from ecosystem exploitation. Hence, the conifer and broadleaf evergreens of the Pindus maintain significance as both endangered relics and reminders of Greek civilization’s ecological errors.

As global warming intensifies, these forests may yet suffer even more loss of habitat, depending on how successful efforts might be to combat higher temperatures, increased invasive species prevalence, and potentially worse erosion from heavier storms.

Bibliography

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McNeill, J. R. The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Williams, Michael. Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Woodward, Susan L. Biomes of Earth: Terrestrial, Aquatic, and Human-Dominated. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003.