Historical Resilience of Landscapes to Cultural and Natural Stresses: Grænavatn farm estate

• Main Authors: Leah Colquhoun, Eileen Tisdall, Huw Smith, Ian Simpson, Stirling Fk La
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Grænavatn; ice core
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.603.6777; http://www.nabohome.org/publications/ipy/HistoricalResilienceFinalReport_2010.pdf

Reconstructing historic landscapes responses to a range of factors contributed by natural processes and anthropogenic activities is an important part of understanding why natural systems fluctuate between stable and unstable conditions. In doing so new understanding of landscape resilience in a dynamic environment can emerge and ultimately lead to new ideas for sustainable management. To understand the natural and cultural features interacting on the Grænavatn farm estate, this study assesses factors of historical land management, climate change and natural catastrophes and their contribution to changing vegetation cover and soil erosion over extended periods of time. To do so a range of data is considered on the effect of soil and vegetation properties sourced from soil accumulation rates, tephrochronology, ice-core records, pollen analysis, micromorphology and historical records. The results demonstrate a complex interaction of natural processes, such as fluvial, climate and natural volcanic catastrophes influencing the stability of the landscape before Landnám. Changes in vegetation post-Landnám initiated by anthropogenic influences extended the