Conceptual Models of 1200 Years of Icelandic Soil Erosion Reconstructed Using Tephrochronology

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4629683
AutoresAndrew J Dugmore, Andrew Dugmore (0000-0001-6556-717X, autor de correspondencia), Guðrún Gísladóttir (0000-0002-4309-2414, University of Iceland), Ian A Simpson (0000-0003-2447-7877, University of Stirling), Anthony Newton (0000-0003-4834-1413)
Año2009
Volumen2
Número1
Páginas1-18
Fecha de publicación2009-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of the North Atlantic (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1935-1933 • E-ISSN: 1935-1933
EditorialJournal of the North Atlantic (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3721/037.002.0103
OpenAlexW2075820042
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas29
Referencias citadas39

With reference to 18 tephra isochrones, we present six reconstructions of landscapes in South Iceland at precise times through the last 1200 years and develop three related models of soil erosion. Before the late ninth century A.D., the landscapes of Iceland were without people and resilient to natural processes. The initial impact of human settlement in the ninth century AD was most profound in ecologically marginal areas, where major anthropogenic modifications of the ecology drove geomorphological change. In the uplands, overgrazing contributed to the formation of a dense patchwork of breaks in the vegetation cover where soil erosion developed and resulted in the rapid denudation of large areas. As the upland soils were shallow (generally 2 m) involved a lower spatial density of eroding fronts and a slower loss of soil cover, but a much greater movement of sediment. Land-management strategies, changes in species patterns of plant communities, extreme weather events, and climate changes have combined in differing degrees to initiate and drive rates of soil erosion. Sensitivity to change and the crossing of erosion thresholds has varied through time. The record of soil erosion has major implications for both archaeology and contemporary land management

Aeolian processes · Denudation · Erosion · Geography · Geomorphology · Overgrazing · Physical geography · Sediment · Tephra · Tephrochronology · Volcano · Aeolian processes and effects · Environmental Science · Geological formations and processes · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Ecology · Geology