Abstract
The recent article by Fenton (Fenton JH. 2008. A postulated natural origin for the open landscape of upland Scotland.
Plant Ecology & Diversity 1:115–127) has argued that the landscapes of upland Scotland are treeless because of long-term
deterioration of soil conditions. There are reasons for thinking that this might be the case in the absence of human activity.
However, there have been considerable anthropogenic pressures on these landscapes for several millenia, documented
archaeologically and palaeoecologically. Attempting to exclude these pressures from the discussion can only lead to an
incomplete and misleading account of a complex series of changes involving an interaction which includes natural vegetational
and environmental processes, climatic changes and human pressures.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 91-93 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Plant Ecology & Diversity |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Plant Science
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Ecology