Country

Italy: 8 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Two characters divide Italy's eight ecoregions. The peninsula and islands belong to Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub - the Italian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests (classed as imperiled), the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests, and the South Apennine mixed montane forests - built for hot, dry summers and mild wet winters. The north is temperate: Po Basin mixed forests on the heavily settled plain, Appenine deciduous montane forests along the spine, and the Alps conifer and mixed forests at the top, with Illyrian and Dinaric influence at the eastern edge. Planting follows that split cleanly: drought-adapted evergreens, olives, and sclerophyll shrubs through the center and south; deciduous woodland and montane conifer conditions, with real winter cold, north of the Apennine crest.