Erosion and Vegetational Changes in South Greenland Caused by Agriculture

Fredskild, Bent: Erosion and Vegetational Changes in South Greenland, Caused by Agriculture. Geografisk Tidsskrift 92:14–21. Copenhagen 1992. Pollen analyses and measurements of magnetic parameters in some lakes and ponds in sub-arctic South Greenland have shown, that after stable conditions through most of the Holocene drastic environmental, changes appeared as a result of the introduction of agriculture by the Norsemen c. A.D. 1000: the vegetation cover was broken by wood cutting and grazing, and soil erosion began. After c. five centuries the Norsemen died out, the vegetation began recovering and soil erosion decreased. After some centuries of stabilizing environmental conditions, the reintroduction of sheep breeding in the beginning of the 20th century has caused a new period of vegetational changes and increasing soil erosion.