The rôle of man in European vegetation history

Abstract

Today’s cultural landscape is the result of human impact upon natural ecosystems over millenia and, in more recent times, the purposeful creation of a landscape specifically for agricultural production. In densely inhabited regions, i.e. in large parts of Europe, human activity completely masks the natural factors. Thus, it is scarcely possible to recognize natural alterations during later periods using the presently available methods of vegetation history. This applies to central and northern Europe from the Middle Ages onwards and to the Mediterranean area since antiquity.*