Bequest of the Norseman—The Potential for Agricultural Intensification and Expansion in Southern Greenland under Climate Change
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The increase of summer temperatures and a prolonged growing season increase the potential for agricultural land use for subarctic agriculture. Nevertheless, land use at borderline ecotones is influenced by more factors than temperature and the length of the growing season, for example soil quality, as the increasing lengths of dry periods during vegetation season can diminish land use potential. Hence, this study focuses on the quality of the soil resource as possible limiting factor for land use intensification in southern Greenland. Physical and chemical soil properties of cultivated grasslands, reference sites and semi-natural birch and grassland sites were examined to develop a soil quality index and to identify the suitability of soils for a sustainable intensification and expansion of the agriculture. The study revealed that soils in the study area are generally characterized by a low effective cation exchange capacity (CECeff) (3.7 ± 5.0 meq 100 g−1), low pH CaCl2 (4.6 ± 0.4) and low clay and silt content (3.0 ± 1.0% and 38.2 ± 4.7%, respectively). Due to the high amount of coarse fraction (59.1 ± 5.8%) and the low amount of soil nutrients, an increasing threat of dry spells for soils and yield could be identified. Further, future land use intensification and expansion bears a high risk for concomitant effects, namely further soil acidification, nutrient leaching and soil degradation processes. However, results of the soil quality index also indicate that sites which were already used by the Norseman (980s–1450) show the best suitability for agricultural use. Thus, these areas offer a possibility to expand agricultural land use in southern Greenland.
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Some northern communities are considering or have begun implementing agricultural practices, including livestock production.
“Some are considering or have begun implementing agricultural practices, including livestock production (Caviezel et al. 2017).”
From Muskox status, recent variation, and uncertain future (2020) · cites this paper as Caviezel et al. 2017
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- Authors
- Caviezel, C., Hunziker, M., & Kuhn, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Basel (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Kuhn, Nikolaus
- ORCID
- Kuhn, Nikolaus
- Venue
- Land
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2017-12-07
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 87
- ISSN
- 2073-445X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2772720909
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2024: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 1.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Land (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- edoc (University of Basel) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- edoc (University of Basel) (submittedVersion)
- Informationszentrum Lebenswissenschaften (ZB MED) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- edoc (University of Basel)
- Funders
- Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Management and Crop Yield
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Soil and Land Suitability Analysis
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil Science and Environmental Management
- Keywords
- agricultural intensification, agricultural expansion, climate change, soil quality index, effective cation exchange capacity, soil acidification, nutrient leaching, soil degradation, dry period, Viking settlement, cultivated grassland, southern Greenland, land suitability
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