Abstract: The studies on the vegetation history in Central Europe showed that human activities not only disturbed the nature, inducing the simplification of vegetation, but also gave impact on the abundance (diversity) of vegetation and landscape. The disturbances of human beings and live stocks could make some semi-natural and high diversity habitat types able to be maintained and developed, but excessive disturbances would certainly induce the simplification and sparseness of vegetation, giving threats to the conservation of biodiversity. Today’s vegetation patterns in Central Europe are in general mostly the products of centuries or, in places, even millennia human disturbances in addition to climate change impact. In most areas of Central Europe, the potential vegetation was mostly forest. Without the strong impact of human activities, most areas of today’s Central Europe, except water biotopes, raised bogs (small remnants of which still exist in certain areas), coastal regions, and alpine biotopes above treelines, would still be covered by more or less closed hardwoods, instead of a diversified landscape. Therefore, the objective of nature conservation should not be limited to “purely natural” vegetation, and the method of approach should not be limited to “remove human impact”. All the vegetation types with typical features are worthy to be conserved. Besides natural ecosystems with high naturalness, cultivated vegetations are ought to be conserved, otherwise, they will be disappeared due to specified cultivation and management. In the meantime, we should not only conserve the actual vegetation, but also restore the potential vegetation, in order to sustain and develop the current diversified landscape, vegetation, and habitat. The conclusions from this review provide insights into the debates on nature conservation in Europe, and also, give reference to the biodiversity conservation strategy in China.

Key words: 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene stress, Vicia faba, Chromosomal aberration, Mitosis