Impacts of land use on the vegetation in three rural landscapes of Norway

Abstract

Long-term and varied land use has had a major influence on the vegetation in rural Norway, and the traditional open landscapes are now being replaced by forests. In the present investigation, we assess and quantify structural vegetation changes caused by changes in land use and climate. Up-to-date actual vegetation maps from three rural study areas were compared with interpreted historical vegetation maps and potential natural vegetation (PNV) models. Our findings indicate that the present vegetation structure is strongly influenced by land use. In the studied sites, 56–66% of the areas presently have another vegetation type than expected from a natural state (PNV). The mean turnover of vegetation types in the study areas during the past 35–40 years was 25%. Our study highlights that the influence of land-use needs to be accounted for when considering the effects of climate change.