Past distribution of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) in the mountains of Israel (Palestine)

Abstract

It was widely accepted that, in the past, forests of Aleppo pine, Pinus halepensis (‘Jerusalem pine’ in Hebrew), were common in Israel-Palestine and covered vast areas of its mountains. However, an interdisci plinary research project, using botanical, historical and geographical evidence, shows a different picture. The pine is mentioned only once in the Bible, and rarely in other religious sources. Descriptions of pine forests, or even isolated stands, by pilgrims and travellers who visited the Holy Land up to and during the nineteenth century, are rare. Palynological investigations in the area do not reveal any significant amounts of pine pollen except for the twentieth century. Investigations of wood remains from archaeological excavations show that Aleppo pine was rather rare, and constituted only a minute percentage of the wood assemblage. It can therefore be assumed quite safely that the Aleppo pine, which covered in the 1980s about 50% of the planted forests of Israel, was rare in the native arboreal vegetation of Israel in the past.

Spatio-temporal perspectives of forest fires regimes in a maturing Mediterranean mixed pine landscape

“…Carmel region. During the afforestation process, approximately 50% of the trees planted were Pinus halopensis, which is presumed to be a rare species in the native historical vegetation communities (Liphschitz and Biger 2001). Most of the other trees planted during this period were non-native species (Weitz 1970), which have different ecological characteristics compared to the native ones.…”

“…P. halepensis adaptations to the local semi-arid climate and its fast growing rates led to the intensive use of this species in the afforestation of the country (Gindel 1944). The plantations, however, cover a wide range of habitats beyond those where the species occurred historically (Liphschitz and Biger 2001). One of the negative effects of these plantations is the invasion of pine trees into natural or semi-natural ecosystems (Richardson 1998).…”

Community homogenization and the invasiveness of commensal species in Mediterranean afforested landscapes

“…The third stand (acacia) was located in the sandy coastal plains of the Mediterranean area in which the dominant vegetation community was Artemisia monosperma and Retama raetam bushes. In the past, pines were rather rare, and constituted only a small percentage of the native arboreal vegetation assemblage (Liphschitz and Biger 2001). Furthermore, the planted pines are quite different genetically from indigenous pines (Grunwald et al 1986) and invade natural habitats and even threaten the indigenous pines (Lavi et al 2005).…”

Saproxylic beetle assemblages in the Mediterranean region: Impact of forest management on richness and structure

“…This applies particularly to Israel where foresters planted almost 100 000 ha of former open land with coniferous trees for several purposes (Ginsberg, 2006;Osem et al, 2008). Aleppo pines (Pinus halepensis) and Calabrian pines (Pinus brutia) are the most frequently planted tree species in Israel and elsewhere in the East Mediterranean, although the latter species is not native to Israel (Biger and Liphschitz, 1991) and the former constituted only a small percentage of the native arboreal vegetation before plantations took place in the 20th century (Liphschitz and Biger, 2001). Almost simultaneously with the afforestation, socio-economic conditions changed in Israel, resulting Forests cover almost 30% of the Mediterranean region today, yet forest management activities have influenced structure and composition of both natural and planted forests.…”