Climate‐human society interactions during the holocene

Abstract

The European Science Foundation (ESF) programme on Holocene climate variability (HOLIVAR) brings together European scientists interested in climate variability over the last 11 500 years (the Holocene period). The scientists principally include palaeoclimatologists, climate historians and climate modellers. The over-arching research questions of the programme concern how and why climate has varied naturally on different timescales (annual to centennial) during the Holocene and how an understanding of past variability can be used to improve the performance of climate models (http://www.esf.org/). A workshop entitled Climate-Human Society Interactions during the Holocene was held on 9 to 12 May 2005, at Kilsbergen conference centre in Annaboda, central Sweden, as part of the HOLIVAR programme. The focus of the Annaboda workshop was to examine the interactions between climate and societies in the past. Palaeoclimatic research has shown that past climatic events have been both abrupt and long-lasting. This certainly must have affected societies although we do not know to what extent and we do not yet understand the complex interactions of different factors causing changes in societal development. Why has climate been a determinant factor at some times and at some places but not at others? This theme was aired at the workshop. Another theme was the role of land cover change in climate change. Modelling studies have shown that changes in land cover and land use could have significantly influenced climate directly through changes in energy and moisture flux. A third, linked theme, during the workshop was to explore how interactions between climate and human societies have impacted on ecosystems. Many different aspects of these themes were presented and discussed at the workshop. In this issue of Geografiska Annaler four out of the total of 18 presentations are published. Rudolph Bradzil gives an example of documentary evidence as an important source of information on interactions betwe n climate and human societies. From docu-