An article on their research findings appears in the April 1 edition of Nature magazine. The discovery suggests that forests of ancient, slow-growing trees have gone undetected and undisturbed by agricultural and industrial activity for centuries. But our research suggests the exact opposite of this is true.
Cliffs are the places that have escaped human disturbance.
These are among the least disturbed forests on Earth. Larson is part of the University's Cliff Ecology Research Group, which also includes research associates Uta Matthes and John Gerrath. The University researchers initially found trees growing on the vertical cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment while studying hiker disturbance on cliffs in Southern Ontario more than a decade ago. They expanded their research to include trees on cliffs in the eastern United States and Germany, France, England, and Wales, with help from researchers in the U.S. and Europe. They studied 224 trees on 21 cliffs in the U.S. and 25 cliffs in Europe.