When large herbivores declined, fewer animals browsed seedlings and disturbed young trees, which could let woodland spread. A 2026 review finds evidence for tree-cover expansion after the Late-Pleistocene megafaunal collapse across humid-temperate Europe, but it does not establish a single timeline or prove that grazers’ disappearance alone caused forest expansion throughout Scandinavia. Climate, fire and human activity also shaped the forests.
How large grazers influenced forests
Browsing and grazing checked young growth
Large herbivores can eat seedlings, saplings and other plants before they grow tall enough to join the canopy. Grazing and browsing therefore limit tree recruitment in some places. Their effects also include trampling, debarking and, for some animals, rooting—disturbances that damage woody vegetation and alter the ground where plants grow.
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The result was not necessarily treeless land
These pressures can help maintain a shifting patchwork of open ground, lightly wooded areas and denser canopy, rather than a uniformly open landscape. The 2005 discussion of European primeval forests also points to fire, windthrow and seasonal flooding as processes that create gaps in woodland. Mitchell’s review of the evidence is a useful counterweight to the idea that large grazers alone determined how closed or open forests were.
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Fewer browsers can mean more surviving trees
If fewer large herbivores are eating or damaging young trees, more seedlings may survive to become saplings and canopy trees. That is a plausible way for reduced browsing and physical disturbance to contribute to woodland expansion; its effect would vary with local conditions and other disturbances.
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The broad European finding
A 2026 review synthesizing evidence for humid-temperate Europe concludes that tree cover expanded after the Late-Pleistocene megafaunal collapse under reduced herbivore pressure. Its abstract states: “Following the Late-Pleistocene megafaunal collapse, tree cover expanded under reduced herbivore pressure.” This is the review authors’ broad interpretation, not proof that grazer loss was the sole cause or that the same sequence occurred everywhere in Scandinavia. The review brings together evidence including pollen, plant macrofossils, isotopic composition, dental ecometrics, microcharcoal and ancient environmental DNA. Read the 2026 review record.
What tree-pollen comparisons show—and what they cannot prove
Different periods show different tree patterns
A 2024 study compared pollen-based vegetation reconstructions for the Last Interglacial, 129,000–116,000 BP, and the early–mid-Holocene, 8,700–5,700 BP. It found higher reconstructed cover of hazel (Corylus) and yew (Taxus) in the Last Interglacial, while oak (Quercus) cover was moderately high in both intervals. The authors say this pattern is consistent with different disturbance regimes and a possible influence from herbivores. The study appears in the Journal of Ecology.
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Pollen is evidence of vegetation, not a controlled test of cause
The comparison supports the idea that disturbance regimes differed, but it does not isolate herbivore pressure from other influences. The study’s authors say a direct quantitative link between the tree patterns and megafauna remains to be established. Pollen records can help reconstruct which plants were present; by themselves, they do not demonstrate that the disappearance of a particular grazer caused a specific forest to expand.
Why herbivore loss was not the only driver
Climate and moisture shaped which trees could grow
Temperature and moisture conditions influence whether seedlings establish, how quickly trees grow and which species thrive. A reduction in browsing could create an opportunity for tree growth, but it would not override unsuitable growing conditions.
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Fire and other disturbances opened woodland
Fire can suppress trees or create openings, while windthrow and seasonal flooding can also interrupt canopy cover. Their effects interact with herbivory: an opening may remain open under heavy grazing but regrow when browsing pressure is lower.
People changed the disturbance regime
From the Mesolithic onward, human hunting and burning increasingly influenced ecosystems. Later, domestic herbivores partly recreated some disturbance associated with wild herbivores, while livestock management also introduced new pressures. In evidence discussed by Mitchell, mid-Holocene Zealand had abundant oak and hazel after aurochs and elk had been extirpated, even though other large herbivores remained. That example cautions against treating the disappearance of two species as a complete explanation for woodland composition.
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The 2026 review likewise treats human influence and domestic herbivory as part of the later story, rather than assuming that vegetation simply returned to a stable natural state once megafauna disappeared. Its European synthesis provides that broader framing.
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The regional chronology remains unresolved
The reviewed evidence supports reduced herbivore pressure as a contributor to post-megafaunal tree-cover expansion in humid-temperate Europe. It does not determine how the timing or strength of that process differed across Norway, Sweden and Denmark. A broad European pattern should not be presented as a precise, uniform Scandinavian history.
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A boreal estimate is not a present-day Scandinavian measurement
A 2018 pollen-based synthesis describes early-Holocene forest expansion to a maximum, followed by a gradual decline in the second half of the Holocene. It reports that boreal forest cover declined relatively rapidly after 1,700 years BP, reaching modern estimates of around 55–60% in that synthesis’s regional reconstruction. That figure is a boreal regional estimate from the synthesis, not a current measurement for all of Scandinavia. See the 2018 pollen-based synthesis.
A later Swedish example illustrates the mechanism, not the ancient event
At Söderåsen in southern Sweden, a study using pollen, plant macrofossils and tree-ring evidence reports renewed, rapid forest expansion after grazing pressure declined around 1900 CE. This local, historical case shows that forest can expand when grazing pressure falls in a particular place. It is not direct evidence for what happened across Scandinavia at the end of the Pleistocene: the dates, setting and historical context are different. The Söderåsen study was published in The Holocene in 2025.
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