The Late Glacial landscape of the Netherlands was a landscape with changing
geomorphology and vegetation. Glacial, eolian and fluvial processes in the
time before the Late Glacial initially had formed the main landscape types
that still existed during the Late Glacial. In these landscape types, geom
orphological processes persisted, particularly during intervals when the ve
getation cover was discontinuous. Vegetation development initiated soil for
mation and stabilised the substratum. On the other hand, the abiotic landsc
ape influenced vegetation development, and particularly vegetation patterns
.
The Late Glacial vegetation patterns, changing in time, have been reconstru
cted on the basis of a palynological database containing the data from over
250 pollen diagrams from the Netherlands. Patterns of vegetation and abiot
ic landscape appear to compare to each other in many instances, indicating
the close interrelationship between vegetation and the abiotic landscape.