Climatic signatures in early modern European grain harvest yields ...

• Main Authors: Ljungqvist, Fredrik Charpentier, Christiansen, Bo, Esper, Jan, Huhtamaa, Heli, Leijonhufvud, Lotta, Pfister, Christian, Seim, Andrea, Skoglund, Martin Karl, Thejll, Peter
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: 550 Earth sciences & geology; 570 Life sciences; biology; 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology; 940 History of Europe; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/195000; https://boris.unibe.ch/195000/

The association between climate variability and grain harvest yields has been an important component of food security and economy in European history. Yet, inter-regional comparisons of climate–yield relationships have been hampered by locally varying data types and the use of different statistical methods. Using a coherent statistical framework, considering the effects of diverse serial correlations on statistical significance, we assess the temperature and hydroclimate (precipitation and drought) signatures in grain harvest yields across varying environmental settings of early modern (ca. 1500–1800) Europe. An unprecedentedly large network of yield records from northern (Sweden), central (Switzerland), and southern (Spain) Europe are compared with a diverse set of seasonally and annually resolved palaeoclimate reconstructions. Considering the effects of different crop types and time series frequencies, we find within regions consistent climate–harvest yield associations characterized by a significant ...