European tree cover during the Holocene reconstructed  from pollen records

Sweeney, Luke; Harrison, Sandy P.; Vander Linden, Marc

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4903-2025

Articles | Volume 22, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4903-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4903-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 18

Research article

|

24 Sep 2025

Research article |

| 24 Sep 2025

European tree cover during the Holocene reconstructed from pollen records

Luke Sweeney, Sandy P. Harrison, and Marc Vander Linden

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4903-2025-supplement

Data sets

European tree cover during the Holocene reconstructed from pollen records: Species classification schema, updates to SMPDSv1 and site level reconstructions Luke Sweeney and Sandy P. Harrison https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15283096

The SPECIAL Modern Pollen Data Set for Climate Reconstructions, version 2 (SMPDSv2) Roberto Villegas-Diaz and Sandy P. Harrison https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.000389

The SPECIAL EPD Database: an expanded resource to document changes in vegetation and climate from pollen records from Europe, the Middle East and western Eurasia Sandy P. Harrison et al. https://doi.org/10.17864/1947.001295

Model code and software

European tree cover during the Holocene reconstructed from pollen records: R code Luke Sweeney https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15283096

Download

Article (3240 KB)
Full-text XML

Short summary

Changes in tree cover across Europe during the Holocene are reconstructed from fossil pollen data using a model developed with modern observations of tree cover and modern pollen assemblages. There is a rapid increase in tree cover after the last glacial period, with maximum cover during the mid-Holocene and a decline thereafter; the timing of the maximum and the speed of the increase and subsequent decrease vary regionally, likely reflecting differences in climate trajectories and human influence.