The vanished Alnus-dominated forests along the Tyrrhenian coast
The development and decline of alder floodplain forests and alder carrs along the Tyrrhenian coasts, in relation to sea level changes, geomorphological processes, human activity, and climate change are presented and discussed. A number of 22 pollen records, complemented by Alnus macrofossil data, document the presence of widespread alder populations in the coastal Tyrrhenian floodplains throughout the Holocene, although with different density from one site to the other, mostly depending on local hydrological conditions.