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sigvald.binet.is wrote:
It is estimated that ca 30-40% of Iceland was tree covered when it was
settled but the tree cover declined slowly at first until the almost
the entire tree cover had disappeared by the end of the 19th century.
(ca 2% of Iceland is tree covered today)
[...]
A Short History of Climate and Human Impact in Iceland
http://tinyurl.com/b3tqw
850 BP Settlement Period
Birch and willow[*] cover up to1/4 of Iceland.
Other areas are wasteland, grasses, or sedges
in bogs.
[*] the willows are shrubs, not trees
1900 to present - Modern Era Iceland now consists
of 1% shrub and woodland, <25% vegetated
750,000 sheep
Natural History of Iceland
http://tinyurl.com/bzg8g
Betula pubescens. On Iceland it is the only tree
species in the wild that manages to survive. Small
numbers of Rowan however spread along within the
birch stands.
There are many speculations on the originality of
the present birch stands. Today they form only a
very small part (1%) of the coverage of the land of
Iceland. At the time of the first Norse settlement it
is estimated that at the time 30% of Iceland was
covered by birch stands. However, from historical
data it is not known what the vigor of the birches
were.
To date almost all birches on Iceland are lower
than 2 meters tall, very much in contrast to
continental downy birches which easily grow up to
20 meters. A possibility is that, as a result of tree-
harvesting (wood material) for clearings and fuel-
materials and the low-level natural occurring
hybridisation between B. pubescens and B. nana
(the dwarf birch) the modern Iceland B. pubescens
population has become far less vital than the
stands that existed before the Norse invasions.
This however, is contradicted by the fact that
there are locally very well developed birch forests.
They can be found in the north near Akureyri and
Ásbyrgi, in the east near Egilsstadir and also in the
Thörsmörk region. These forests thrive in
protected valleys.
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º°º°º°º < Peter Alaca > º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°º°
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