User:Jonathan Adams/NEW SET OF PALAEOVEGETATION MAPS (PRELIMINARY)

Global land environments since the last interglacial
For a colour LGM global ecosystem summary map click here. Compiled by Jonathan Adams, Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Gwanak-Ro, Seoul, South Korea

An atlas of the ice age Earth The following ecosystems maps, compiled by Jonathan Adams, were last edited in 2002. They are preserved online here as a resource for scientists and the general public. The maps and text are not copyrighted, but please cite this Web site as described at the base of this page.

References cited on the QEN pages, including those cited here

REGION
Europe

Eurasia

Africa

Australasia

North America

South America

Key to the vegetation classification system used in the atlas

The main QEN Home Page (a more detailed literature review of the LGM and early-to-mid Holocene)

Key to mnemonic vegetation codes used on the maps

The procedure for constructing the regional maps
The maps presented here are based on inter-disciplinary interpretation of evidence from plant fossils, together with zoological evidence, soil and sedimentological analyses which also have some bearing on vegetation cover. The approach has been to review current literature and liase with experts from each region (acknowledged within the text). Given the scope of the task, regional review sources and published maps have been an important source of information, with less emphasis placed on consulting every published paper on each region (of which there are many thousands). In many areas, the evidence is sparsely distributed and the map reconstructions presented here should only be regarded as tentative. Summaries of the evidence from each region are presented, in order to give some impression of the quality of data currently available, and the present disagreements within the literature. It is to be expected that as further evidence accumulates over the coming years, significant revisions to these maps will become necessary.

Brief discussion of the differences between various published palaeovegetation maps

More detailed description of the mapping process