Articles | Volume 22, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4903-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-4903-2025
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

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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.
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