Agroclimatic relationships in Central Scandinavia, c. 1560–1920

For the region of central Scandinavia, there exists high-quality tree-ring based temperature reconstructions that cover the last 1200 years. This paper utilizes climate reconstructions in tandem with historical sources to estimate the relationships between climatic variability and agriculture in central Scandinavia between the 16th and 20^th centuries, with a specific focus on temperatures, harvests and agricultural dates. Using historical sources on agriculture importantly allows for evaluation of different climate reconstructions before the era of instrumental measurements. Thus, this paper not only sheds light on the societal relevance of past and present climatic change and variability, but also provides insights into the climate of the past.

While historical harvest dates in many parts of Europe have been employed to reconstruct growing season temperatures, this paper also includes virtually unique long time-series of sowing and hay-cutting dates going back to the late 17^th and 18^th century, respectively, and shows how these type of agricultural dates also had significant relationships with temperature variability in central Scandinavia. Furthermore, agriculture in this region, located in the northern boreal zone, was heavily constrained by growing season temperatures, and harvests exhibits much clearer relationships with climatic variability compared with less marginal regions of Europe. Climate-harvest relationships are studied at a local level, allowing for spatial anlaysis of micro-climatological differences within the larger regional context.