Mind the gap: how open were European primeval forests?
There are two competing hypotheses about the structure and dynamics of primeval forests in lowland Europe: the high-forest and the wood-pasture hypotheses, both of which influence current European forest conservation policies. In a recent study using pollen-analytical data from across lowland Europe, Mitchell provides support for rejecting the wood-pasture hypothesis. His study is important for future forest management planning and for showing how hypotheses about large herbivores as biotic factors can be tested using palaeoecological data.
Birks
H John B
HJ
Department of Biology and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, N-5007 Bergen, Norway. John.Birks@bio.uib.no