Long-term tree recruitment dynamics of subalpine forests mainly depend on temperature changes, but little is known about the feedbacks between historical land use and climate. Here, we analyze a southern European, millennium-long dataset of tree recruitment from three high-elevation pine forests located in Mediterranean mountains (Pyrenees, northeastern Spain; Pollino, southern Italy; and Mt. Smolikas, northern Greece). We identify synchronized recruitment peaks in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, following prolonged periods of societal and climate instability. Major European population crises in the 14th and 15th centuries associated with recurrent famines, the Black Death pandemic, and political turmoil are likely to have reduced the deforestation of subalpine environments and caused widespread rewilding. We suggest that a distinct cold phase in the Little Ice Age around 1450 ce could also have accelerated the cessation of grazing pressure, particularly in the Pyrenees, where the demographic crisis was less severe. Most pronounced in the Pyrenees, the enhanced pine recruitment from around 1500-1550 ce coincides with temporarily warmer temperatures associated with a positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. We diagnose that a mixture of human and climate factors has influenced past forest recruitment dynamics in Mediterranean subalpine ecosystems. Our results highlight how complex human-climate interactions shaped forest dynamics during pre-industrial times and provide historical analogies to recent rewilding.

DendrologyLab Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences University of Tuscia Viterbo Italy

Department of Geography Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Geography Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Germany

Department of Geography University of Cambridge Cambridge UK

EiFAB iuFOR University of Valladolid Soria Spain

Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czech Republic

Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología Zaragoza Spain

Swiss Federal Research Institute Birmensdorf Switzerland

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