Re: Cod Fish, Walrus, and Chieftains

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.


--
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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