Treeline ecotone habitat loss and upward shift is driven by land abandonment rather than climate change in the Italian Alps
Erik Carrieri, Ha Trang Nguyen, Fabio Meloni, Nicolò Anselmetto, Donato Morresi, Matteo Garbarino
The paper shows that treeline ecotone shifts in the Italian Alps are driven by land abandonment rather than climate change, with land-use variables explaining more variance than climatic ones.
bioRxiv · Sep 30, 2026 · PreprintEcology