Using climate and vegetation studies in southern Greenland to estimate the natural resources during the Norse period

Abstract

Agriculture in southern Greenland started when Eric the Red came from Iceland around 982 A.D., and the Norse era stopped approximately 500 years later. Modern sheep‐farming started in 1924, and recent climatic studies and stellite‐based monitoring have shown great variation in the biomass production from one year to another due to minor climate fluctuations. In areas populated to capacity with farms it can easily result in overgrazing which, in this föhn‐affected area, easily implies soil erosion. The results facilitate future agricultural management and planning of the potential breeding capacity in this vulnerable marginal environment, but the results also indicate some of the problems the Norse might have faced.