Research project Adaptations to climate change in the northern Baltic region ca 1500–1900
How have people and societies historically adapted to climate change? This project investigates how people in the early modern era were affected by, and adapted to, climate variation in the northern Baltic region.
This project is expected to contribute to the state of scientific knowledge on climate change by:
- Estimating, for the northern Baltic Sea region, how effects of climate change have varied over time and space as well as how successful different adaptation measures have been.
- Increasing understanding of how different historical actors have been affected by climate variability in the northern Baltic Sea region as well as what technologies and cultural aspects were utilized in the adaptation process.
- Developing new tools for studying historical climate adaptation that allow for results from historical studies of climate adaptation to be used in contemporary and future climate adaptation strategies.
Project description
The project “Adapting to Climate Change in the Northern Baltic Sea Region, AD 1500–1900” consists of two subprojects which together address the effect of, and adaptation to, climate change in agriculture and winter transport.
The project uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to study the association between harvests, temperature and precipitation, demographic fluctuations, as well as the impact of winter climate variability on land and sea transport.
The research is expected to result in eight scientific articles written in collaboration with two postdoctoral researchers and a number of other collaborators. The research is breaking new ground by applying research questions similar to those in research on contemporary climate change adaptation on the past.
Project members
Project managers
Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist
Professor of History, especially Historical Geography
Members
Andrea Seim
Doctor
Rodney Edvinsson
Professor
Martin Skoglund
Postdoktor
Paul J. Krusic
Guest Researcher
Sofia Ekelund
Doktorand
Publications
Skoglund, Martin K., ”Klimat, väder och spannmålsodling i Jämtland under historisk tid”,
Jämten 118 (2025): 42–49.