科研之友
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摘要
The environmental impact of the Norse landnom (colonization) in Greenland has been studied extensively. But to date, no study has quantified the soil erosion that Norse agricultural practices are believed to have caused. To resolve this problem, a high resolution sedimentary record from Lake Igaliku in South Greenland is used to quantitatively reconstruct 2500 years of soil erosion driven by climate and historical land use. An accurate chronology, established on 18 AMS C-14, and Pb-210 and Cs-137 dates, allows for the estimation of detritic fluxes and their uncertainties. Land clearance and the introduction of grazing livestock by the Norse around 1010 AD caused an acceleration of soil erosion up to similar to 8 mm century(-1) in 1180 AD which is two-fold higher than the natural pre-landncim background. From 1335 AD to the end of the Norse Eastern Settlement (in the mid-fifteenth century), the vegetation began to recover from initial disturbance and soil erosion decreased. After an initial phase of modern sheep breeding similar to the medieval one, the mechanization of agriculture in the 1980s caused an unprecedented soil erosion rate of up to similar to 21 mm century(-1), five times the pre-anthropogenic levels. Independently, a suite of biological and geochemical proxies (including Ti and diatom concentrations, C:N ratio, delta C-13 and delta 1(5N) of organic matter) confirm that the medieval and modern anthropogenic erosion far exceeds any natural erosion over the last 2500 years. Our findings question the veracity of the catastrophic scenario of overgrazing and land degradation considered to have been the major factor responsible for Norse settlement demise. They also shed light on the sustainability of modern practices and their consequences for the future of agriculture in Greenland.
- 出版日期2012-1-16
