In this area, dunes as high as seven metres alternate with hollows of up to two metres below sea level where the water table rises to the surface. Woods give way to open meadows, hedgerows, brackish environments and ruderal areas (i.e., surrounding ruins) in a constantly changing sequence. The plant life found in the forest today has also spread spontaneously over the dunes.

It has been suggested that name ‘Mesola’ derives from media insula, or land in the middle of water or mensolae, or land rising above the water. Whatever its etymology, both these possibilities reflect the characteristics of the area: its position, set inside a delta, requires continuous adaptation of life forms and considerable transformation of the land itself.

Indeed, it is the changing morphology – in particular the variable height of the soil and the alternation of areas rich in water with drier zones – that gives rise to the wealth and diversity of the local animal and plant life. 

This veritable mosaic of environments is populated by newts, frogs, marsh tortoises, birds, deers and porcupines. The key note here is variability: of the land as well as of its plant and animal species, offering a fine example of how biodiversity can combine with geodiversity.

In Bosco della Mesola we find frequent evidence of continuous interaction between the forms of the landscape and the activity of living organisms, which adapt to their environment and in doing so alter it, as in the case of the plants that contribute to stabilising the dunes.  

Human activities have also made a major contribution to changing the landscape. Woodland clearance in the past was accompanied by major reclamation drives, resulting in the disappearance between the early and mid-20th century of the marshland that once surrounded the forest.

These range from plants on the rises, including species typical of the crests of dunes such as the evergreen oak, to the marsh ferns (Thelypteris palustris) that tend to thrive in the hollows found near the water table.

Living organisms in their turn also alter their environment, stabilising the dunes and affecting the flow of sediment, in a continuous exchange between the living and non-living. Here we find element and nutrient cycles unfolding, together with the water cycle and transformations of matter: in short, the great cycle of life.

Down in the hollows, the hygrophilous woodland species typically found in water-rich environments become more common, including the white poplar (Populus alba), the field elm (Ulmus minor) and alder (Alnus glutinosa).

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Giacomo Radi | Rights reserved

Field elm (Ulmus minor)

Plant species typically found under different climate conditions are all present in the Boscone. There include Mediterranean plants such as the Etruscan honeysuckle (Lonicera etrusca), Eurasian plants such as the dyer's greenweed (Genista tinctoria), plants found in temperate zones such as the common centaury (Centaurium erythraea), and finally cosmopolitan species such as the common reed (Phragmites australis).

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Giacomo Radi | Rights reserved

Etruscan honeysuckle

Species typical of temperate climates have developed a range of strategies to survive the winter. Hemicryptophytes are herbaceous perennials such as the black bog-rush (Schoenus nigricans), with buds that overwinter at ground level, protected by plant litter.

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Monika | Rights reserved | Adobe Stock

Black bog-rush (Schoenus nigricans)

Therophytes, including the broadleaf glandweed (Parentucellia latifolia), overwinter in seed form.

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Broadleaf glandweed (Parentucellia latifolia)

On the other hand, geophytes such as the marsh fern are equipped with underground organs.

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Maxim Kukurund | Rights reserved | Adobe Stock

Marsh fern

The rich biodiversity of this relictual coastal forest is also linked to its numerous wetlands. Several hygrophilous species that prefer wet environments can be found wherever water abounds: around pools and wetlands, or along the dense network of water courses supplying the forest.

They include attractive plants such as the marsh reed and the spiny rush (Juncus acutus), the common duckweed that adds colour to the water courses with its tiny floating leaves (Spirodela and Lemna), as well as plant species anchored to the bottom of the wider canals (Ceratophyllum and Myriophyllum). Green algae of the Chara genus, although generally very rare on plains, are also very commonly found in the permanent ponds of the Boscone.

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Mathia, linjerry | Rights reserved | Adobe Stock

Spiny rush (Juncus acutus) and Myriophyllum

Bosco della Mesola combines all of these conditions. The forest is still home to the Italian mainland’s only indigenous deer population (Cervus elaphus italicus), which has survived centuries of hunting and habitat disruption by humans.

As well as deer, various other species protected under the Habitats Directive live in the forest, including invertebrates (Lucanus cervus, Lycaena dispar, Cerambyx cerdo), reptiles (Emys orbicularis and Testudo hermanni), amphibians (Triturus carnifex and Pelobates fuscus insubricus), and bats (Barbastella barbastellus and Rhinolophus ferrum-equinum).

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Nicola Destefano, Lisa Brancaleoni | Rights reserved

Lucanus cervus (mating), Pelobates fuscus, Testudo hermannii in Bosco della Mesola

This forest is a splendid example of interactions and adaptations of very diverse ecosystemic components. The Boscone is a complex whole made up of the climatic, chemical and physical characteristics of the environment, of local plant and animal life, and naturally also of any local human communities.

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Nicola Destefano | Rights reserved

Ecosystems are anything but still photographs. On the contrary, they alter in response to environmental conditions and to the dynamics of communities of living organisms, including human beings. And so, over the course of time, a number of species have vanished from the Boscone, either due to adverse historical events or climate change.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the forest stretched as far as the coast and featured typical coastal habitats, where the sword-leaf dogbane (Apocynum venetum) grew, as can be seen from this sample from Antonio Campana’s collection, housed at the Herbarium of the University of Ferrara.

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Apocynum venetum

Freshwater environments populated by the white water lily (Nymphaea alba) have also declined, together with wet meadows rich in orchids such as Anacamptis laxiflora. But other plants have appeared that were never recorded before 2021, including an orchid, Epipactis microphylla, and a species of sedge, Carex punctata.

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Nicola Destefano | Rights reserved

Anacamptis laxiflora

These changes and adaptations are part of the continuous dynamism of this extraordinary environment. It must be protected and respected, including its transformations, first and foremost for our own benefit.

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Andrea Moro | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Dryades

Carex puncata

Also worrying is the increasing presence of nitrophilous species, adapted to high nitrogen concentrations. The spread of this type of plants reflects the impact of farmland surrounding the forest, and in particular the use of fertilisers.

Furthermore, the rising sea level, in turn linked to rising temperatures, is leading to increased soil salinity in the south-eastern part of the Reserve. This is resulting in changes in the composition and distribution of hygrophilous communities.