A 2500 year record of natural and anthropogenic soil erosion in South Greenland

The environmental impact of the Norse landnám (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 14C, and 210Pb and 137Cs 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 ∼8 mm century−1 in 1180 AD which is two-fold higher than the natural pre-landnám 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 ∼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, δ13C and δ15N 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.

► First quantification of soil erosion from a lake deposit of South Greenland.
► Medieval agriculture caused a two-fold increase in soil erosion.
► Early soil erosion decrease contradicts the theory of land degradation by the Norse.
► Modern hay-making caused an unprecedented acceleration of soil erosion (x5).