Abstract
Effective adaptation determines agricultural vulnerability to climate change, especially in the pre-industrial era. Crop management as an agricultural adaptation to climate change in recent human history, however, has rarely been systematically evaluated. Using Europe as our study area, we statistically compared yield ratio of wheat, rye, barley, and oats (an important performance indicator of an agrarian economy) between Eastern and Western Europe in AD 1500–1800. In particular, a statistical comparison was made of crop yield ratio in the two regions during the warm agricultural recovery period AD 1700–1800. The general trend of crop yield in Eastern and Western Europe basically followed the alternation of climatic epochs, in which the extreme cooling period in AD 1560–1660 drastically reduced the crop yield ratio. The yield ratio of rye in Eastern and Western Europe was very similar throughout the entire study period. However, the yield ratio of wheat, barley, and oats showed different patterns in the two regions and increased drastically in Western Europe in the warm agricultural recovery period, which might have contributed to rapid socio-economic development in Western Europe and eventually the East–West Divide in Europe in the following centuries.
Highlights
Global climate change has exerted a significant influence on human life, covering almost every aspect of our societies [1]
Agricultural production is regarded as the sector most sensitive to climate change because it is highly dependent on climatic conditions; this was especially true in the early modern era when the technological level was low [2]
The general trend of crop yield ratio in Eastern and Western Europe basically followed the alternation of climatic epochs, and the extreme cooling period of AD 1560–1660 resulted in the drastic reduction of crop yield ratio
Summary
Global climate change has exerted a significant influence on human life, covering almost every aspect of our societies [1]. Agricultural production is regarded as the sector most sensitive to climate change because it is highly dependent on climatic conditions; this was especially true in the early modern era when the technological level was low [2]. The interaction between climate change and agricultural production has long been conceived as an arena where only a minimum level of technology is available to overcome natural impacts. Crop yield ratio has been highlighted in historical studies and employed in examining agricultural productivity [5]. Crop yield ratio reflects their social production capacity, and indicates their macro- and micro-economic performance [6]. As the implication of analyzing crop yield ratio has been increasingly realized, a growing number of studies have examined the Agriculture 2016, 6, 29; doi:10.3390/agriculture6030029 www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture
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