By Judith Kirschner A burning issue: Understanding the imprints of humans on the ecology and evolution of coastal heathlands For the May version of the PyroLife ‘Living with Fire’ webinar, Prof. Vigdis Vandvik (University of Bergen) gave a fascinating lecture on the imprints of human land-use on the ecology and evolution of coastal heathlands. Coastal heathlands are barren, inconspicuous landscapes, dominated by dwarf-shrubs such as Calluna vulgaris, that cover extensive areas along the European oceanic coasts from the north of Norway to Portugal. Palaeoecological reconstructions indicate that since around 6000 years before present (Prosch-Danielsen and Simonsen 2000; Hjelle et al. […]