Droughts and their impacts on agriculture and society in southernmost Sweden during the 18th and 19th centuries

Scania is the most productive agricultural region in Sweden, located at the southernmost tip of the country, with a mild climate and including areas with very fertile soils. Historical research has shown how pre-industrial grain harvests in Scania benefitted from cooler and wetter summers, particularly during the months of June and July (Skoglund, 2022, 2024). This is in contrast to northern Sweden, where excessive dampness and, in particular, cold conditions during the growing season (April–September) have constituted the main agrometeorological constraints (Edvinsson et al. 2009; Skoglund, 2023).

The city of Lund, situated close to some of the most fertile plains of Scania, is also the location of some of the longest series of daily instrumental meteorological measurements (going back to 1748 for precipitation and 1753 for temperature). In addition, there is a relative abundance of digitized historical harvest data overlapping with the early instrumental period, c. 1750­–1860, when many parts of Sweden, including Scania, experienced what has been described as an ‘agricultural revolution’. However, the early instrumental records from Lund have only been partially digitized and homogenized. This presentation focuses on recent and ongoing research to estimate the impact of drought on agriculture and society in southernmost Sweden during the 18^th and 19^th centuries using the early instrumental meteorological data from Lund in combination with other historical documentary evidence pertaining to harvests and demographic indicators and tree-ring based hydroclimate reconstructions.

 

References

Edvinsson, R., Leijonhufvud, L., and Söderberg, J.: Väder, skördar och priser i Sverige, in: Agrarhistoria på många sätt: 28 studier om människan och jorden. Festskrift till Janken Myrdal på hans 60-årsdag, edited by Liljewall, B., Flygare, I. A., Lange, U., Ljunggren, L., and Söderberg, J., pp. 115–136, The Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Stockholm, 2009.

Skoglund, M. K.: Climate variability and grain production in Scania, 1702–1911, Climate of the Past, 18, 405–433, 2022.

Skoglund, M. K.: Farming at the margin: climatic impacts on harvest yields and agricultural practices in central Scandinavia, c. 1560–1920, Agricultural History Review, 71, 203–233, 2023.

Skoglund, M. K.: The impact of drought on northern European pre-industrial agriculture, The Holocene, 34, 120–135, 2024.