<--- previous slide
2     the beginning
DHJanzen100770.jpg
high resolution

 

 next slide --->
This is a photograph of forest cover in Mesoamerica 8000 years ago. It was essentially all forest except for some areas of pine-dotted grasslands Nicaragua, where the grassland was maintained by (apparently) natural fires from a high frequency of lightning fires (though this assumption of non-anthropogenic cause needs some further examination).
Image to be compared with this image:

back to lecture slides
or skip to:

slide (1-105)
slide with image: