Reliable quantitative vegetation reconstructions for Europe during the Holocene are crucialto improving our understanding of landscape dynamics, making it possible to assess the past effectsof... Show moreReliable quantitative vegetation reconstructions for Europe during the Holocene are crucialto improving our understanding of landscape dynamics, making it possible to assess the past effectsof environmental variables and land-use change on ecosystems and biodiversity, and mitigatingtheir effects in the future. We present here the most spatially extensive and temporally continuouspollen-based reconstructions of plant cover in Europe (at a spatial resolution of 1 1) over theHolocene (last 11.7 ka BP) using the ‘Regional Estimates of VEgetation Abundance from Large Sites’(REVEALS) model. This study has three main aims. First, to present the most accurate and reliablegeneration of REVEALS reconstructions across Europe so far. This has been achieved by including alarger number of pollen records compared to former analyses, in particular from the Mediterraneanarea. Second, to discuss methodological issues in the quantification of past land cover by usingalternative datasets of relative pollen productivities (RPPs), one of the key input parameters ofREVEALS, to test model sensitivity. Finally, to validate our reconstructions with the global forestchange dataset. The results suggest that the RPPs.st1 (31 taxa) dataset is best suited to producingregional vegetation cover estimates for Europe. These reconstructions offer a long-term perspectiveproviding unique possibilities to explore spatial-temporal changes in past land cover and biodiversity. Show less
The extent of vegetation openness in past European landscapes is widely debated. In particular, the temperate forest biome has traditionally been defined as dense, closed-canopy forest; however,... Show moreThe extent of vegetation openness in past European landscapes is widely debated. In particular, the temperate forest biome has traditionally been defined as dense, closed-canopy forest; however, some argue that large herbivores maintained greater openness or even wood-pasture conditions. Here, we address this question for the Last Interglacial period (129,000–116,000 years ago), before Homo sapiens–linked megafauna declines and anthropogenic landscape transformation. We applied the vegetation reconstruction method REVEALS to 96 Last Interglacial pollen records. We found that light woodland and open vegetation represented, on average, more than 50% cover during this period. The degree of openness was highly variable and only partially linked to climatic factors, indicating the importance of natural disturbance regimes. Our results show that the temperate forest biome was historically heterogeneous rather than uniformly dense, which is consistent with the dependency of much of contemporary European biodiversity on open vegetation and light woodland. Show less
