Palaeoecological evidence of pollen sequence in eastern Spain challenges existing concepts of vegetation change

Palaeoecological evidence from a pollen sequence in eastern Spain does not support the notion of potential vegetation as employed by the floristic-phytosociological approach of vegetation classification. A middle Holocene replacement of Pinus forest by Quercus-dominated communities is interpreted as the result of increased fires In the surroundings of the site and suggests that sclerophylious scrub in the region could not have been determined by climatic conditions as previously assumed. Therefore it cannot be considered to be a Climax state of vegetation. The possible role of anthropogenic and random processes in this change should not be underestimated.