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Aim This paper reviews the available documentary, archaeological and palaeoecological evidence for the abandonment of agricultural land and consequent regeneration of the forest in Europe after the Black Death. Location Western and northern Europe. Methods This review is the result of an exhaustive search of the historical, archaeological and palaeoecological literature for evidence indicating agricultural decline and forest regeneration in Eurasia during the 14th century. The available evidence for landscape change can be divided into two categories: (1) documentary and archaeological sources, and (2) palaeoecological reconstructions of past vegetation. In the past few years, several pollen diagrams from north-west Europe have been reported with precise chronologies (decadal and even annual scale) showing the abandonment of farmland and consequent ecological change in the late medieval period. Results and main conclusions There is strong evidence of agricultural continuity at several sites in Western Europe at the time of the Black Death. The effects of the Black Death on the European rural landscape varied geographically, with major factors probably including the impact of the plague on the local population, and soil quality. At two sites in western and northern Ireland, the late medieval decline in cereal agriculture was probably a direct result of population reduction following the Black Death. In contrast, the decline in cereal production began at sites in Britain and France before the Black Death pandemic ofad 1347–52, and was probably due to the crisis in the agricultural economy, exacerbated by political instability and climate deterioration. Much of the abandoned arable land was probably exploited for grazing during the period between the decline in cereal farming and the Black Death. In the aftermath of the Black Death, grazing pressure was greatly reduced owing to reductions in the grazing animal population and a shortage of farmers. Vegetation succession on the abandoned grazing land resulted in increased cover of woody tree species, particularly Betula and Corylus, by the late 14th century. The cover of woodland was greatest at c.ad 1400, before forest clearance and agriculture increased in intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the forest gap model, FAREAST, its testing and its application to simulating the distribution, composition and dynamics of forests in eastern Eurasia. The FAREAST model is tested in north-eastern China, initially for forests on the elevational gradient of Changbai Mountain, which is located on the border of the People's Republic of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Subsequently, the model is inspected regionally for other northern Chinese mountains and, finally, it is applied to predict subcontinental forest communities in the Russian Far East. Boreal larch ( Larix spp.) forests cover much of the 6 million km2 of eastern Eurasia. Mixed broad-leaved tree species/Korean pine ( Pinus koraiensis) forests and spruce/fir ( Picea/ Abies) forests also occupy considerable areas. The model is tested using three types of information: (1) direct species composition comparisons between simulated and observed mature forests at the same locations; (2) forest type comparisons between simulated and observed forests along altitudinal gradients of several different mountains; and (3) comparison with forest stands in different succession stages of simulated forests. Model comparisons with independent data indicate that the FAREAST model is capable of representing many of the broad features of the forests of north-eastern China. After regional model validation in the north-eastern region of China, geographical model applications were developed for the forests of the Russian Far East. In simulations at 31 different sites distributed across the entire Russian Far East and including a wide variety of natural forests, the model demonstrates an ability to reproduce observed vegetation pattern. The model simulations are correct with respect to our criteria for 23 of the 31 sites, and there are close results for three other sites. Among the five sites that are incorrectly predicted, four simulations can be corrected by adding a simple assumption to the model for permafrost effects on water balance. Continental-scale forest cover can be simulated using a forest gap model to represent individual–plant interactions with one another, and their environment, and with parameters that describe the biology of each tree species. It appears that such a model, validated relatively locally (in this case, in north-eastern China), can then be applied over a much larger region. These results further imply that the Russian Far East forests can be regarded as a natural geographical expansion of north-eastern Chinese forests. In both regions, forests share not only similar species compositions, but also similar underlying causes of forest successional dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]