Woodland-Grassland ecotonal shifts in environmental mosaics: Lessons learnt from the environmental history of the carpathian basin (Central Europe) during the holocene and the last ice age based on investigation of paleobotanical and mollusk remains

Abstract

A treeline is a boundary used for marking the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. In ecology an upper and lower treeline is generally highlighted (Odum 1979) with an additional transitional zone (ecotone) found between the referred boundary and the adjacent open vegetation areas. Temperature besides precipitation is the major factor that controls the growth and sustainment of trees in an area. Nevertheless, several local ecological factors including such parameters as soil type, local vegetation, snow cover, elevation, geomorphology, rainshadow, gravity-induced mass movement, lightning, volcanic eruptions, wildfires caused by meteorite impact or wind shear can alter or prevent the sustainment of an arboreal vegetation in an area locally or regionally.