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Inecology,potential natural vegetation (PNV), also known as Kuchler potential vegetation, is thevegetation that would be expected givenenvironmental constraints (climate,geomorphology,geology) without human intervention or ahazard event.
The concept was developed in the mid 1950s byphytosociologistReinhold Tüxen, partly expanding on the concept ofclimax vegetation.
PNV is widely used in modernconservation andrenaturation projects to predict the most adapted species for a definiteecotope.Native species being considered having optimumecological resilience for their native environment, and the bestpotential to enhancebiodiversity.
To determine "natural" vegetation, scientists research theoriginal vegetation of a land throughretrospective ecology.
Study of past ecosystems allowed to demonstrate, for instance, that numerous contemporarybiotopes (like the "wild" Slovenian forests for instance), supposedly largely untouched, were in fact very remote from theirnatural vegetation.[citation needed]
In Japan,Akira Miyawaki demonstrated after study that, on the one hand, long supposed "native species" had in fact beenintroduced on account of human intervention since over 1000 years (especially,coniferous being privileged overdeciduous). On the other hand, thatreforestation with"original" species gives good and often spectacular results.[citation needed]
Maps of potential natural vegetation[1] are used worldwide for improved ecosystem comprehension andmanagement.
However the concept is subject to debate,[2][3] on similar grounds as for theclimax theory. Critics argue thatecosystems are not static but ever dynamic: asbioclimatic conditions constantly evolve, it is illusory to define either a final or a primary stage of vegetation.