DOLOMITES - Annexes 2-8 - Provincia di Udine

NOMINATION OF THE DOLOMITES FOR INSCRIPTION ON THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE LIST UNESCO
FLORA AND VEGETATION
80
the vegetal landscape and its development
The plant landscape and its development in every place on the planet which has not been radically
shaped by man, the plant cover, namely, the apparent form of the landscape designed by growing
plant life, is the result of the synergetic combination of a variety of climatic and soil factors, as well
as human interventions. In the case of the Dolomite area, the pattern of plant life is also the dynamic
and ever changing result of the complex historic and geological events that have caused the formation
of the Alpine mountain chain. Faults, dislocation, oversteps, folds and other tectonic phenomena
make it possible to reconstruct, fairly precisely, what the area might have looked like in the past.
The morphology that characterizes the present-day landscape of the Dolomites largely derives from
quaternary glacial formation that overturned the previous situation by making a drastic natural selection,
resulting in the disappearance of many species and the arrival on the Alps of other species of
Artic and boreal origin.
Although not particularly abundant during individual snowfalls, total snow accumulation
over the long Dolomite winter can reach extremely considerable depths.
Since the withdrawal of the last Wurmian glaciers (10,000 to 12,000 years ago), diverse climatic periods
have alternated, bringing a succession of dry and cold phases and more temperate and humid
phases. Certified evidence of this historic succession of climates is obtained from pollen analyses con-