Rather than relying solely on general vegetation typologies, we took a more ecologically oriented approach, by explicitly considering different units of vegetation structure and composition.
A seascape is a spatially heterogeneous surface that is generally represented as a mosaic of patches (homogeneous units of natural vegetation) with spatial and functional relationships that are organized as puzzle pieces, which represent one or several ecosystems.
The three zones constituted clearly distinguishable units in terms of vegetation and soil characteristics.
Sampling units represented various combinations of vegetation, terrain conditions, and stand ages that were derived from digital biophysical data, with plant communities the basic unit of analysis.
Further, a number of vegetation units are indicative of forest vegetation ranging from lowland to upland forests dominated by woody angiosperms and mixed coniferous-angiosperm forests.
In reconstructing past vegetation by pollen analysis there is an increasing need to quantify plant abundance and to specify the distribution of vegetation units in the landscape.
The archaeological contexts of the assemblages demonstrate differential access to woody resources and use of vegetation units, depending on social rank and site function.
