A long-term chronology of Pinus pinea L. from “Parco della Versiliana” (Forte dei Marmi, Italy) derived from the tree-falling induced by the windstorm on March 4th-5th, 2015.

Pinewoods are distinctive environmental elements in the Mediterranean coastal area of both natural and historical significance. From the evening of 4th to the morning of 5th March 2015 a severe windstorm, with wind gusts over 150 km/h, occurred in the Tuscany region of the central Italy, causing vast damages to anthropic and natural environment and damaging numerous trees in the renowned pinewood “Parco della Versiliana”, in the Tyrrhenian coastal area. The meteorological calamity gave the chance to build a long-term tree-ring chronology of stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) from the area. The resulting Versiliana Earlywood, Latewood and Total Ring Width chronologies (TRW) span from 1829 to 2014 (186 yrs) revealed to be one of the more long-living species of the Italian Tyrrhenian coast. The correlation function analysis performed between the TRW site chronology and temperatures indicate that the TRW chronology is slightly positively correlated with March, July and October of the current year of growth. Significant negative values of correlation between TRW and precipitations are reported in June, July, October and November of the previous year. However, the dendroclimatic analyses did not showed a strict relationship between pine growth and climate parameters. The peculiar characteristics of the site, with a very shallow groundwater level, and the physiological habits of the species, allowed trees to growth undisturbed by drought and by potential stress due to fluctuations of salt concentration in the groundwater. We can consider the Versiliana tree-ring chronology suitable for further dendroclimatic analyses in the Mediterranean environment.