Kronika českých pralesů

Chronicle of virgin forests in Bohemia. How they looked like and why they are not here anymore by Petr Pokorný.

Iversen’s model explaining forest development over multiple Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycle gives general explanation also to Holocene forest succession. In this model, temperate ecosystem evolution is explained as the co-evolution of biotic factors (vegetation) and soil geo-chemistry. This view is applied to several case studies made in the territory of what is at present the Czech Republic, where new pollen and malacostratigraphic data prove general presence of rich broadleaf forests in the middle Holocene (7500 to 2000 years BC) and show the dynamics of their subsequent degradation. On ultimate nature of Iversen’s cycle there are superimposed other, more proximate and site-specific processes, like natural disturbations and human impact.