Landscape Ecology
Title: People and pines 1555 – 1910: integrating ecology, history and archaeology to assess long-term resource use in northern Fennoscandia
Authors: Anna-Maria Rautio, Torbjörn Josefsson, Anna-Lena Axelsson and Lars Östlund
Definitions of natural resources
We defined the investigated Scots pine resources as follows:
Trees for inner-bark harvesting: standing living Scots pine trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 15-25 cm. Data obtained from Zackrisson et al. (2000) who suggested that the mean diameter at breast height at harvest time was 20 cm.
Lichen-rich trees: standing, living Scots pine trees with a DBH of 10-20 cm. Data obtained from Berg et al. (2011a) who estimated that the average diameter at one meters height of stumps (n =55) of trees felled for harvesting lichen was 13.7 cm, but with a large variation (10 to 20 cm).
Sami firewood: standing dead Scots pine trees with a DBH of 15-25 cm. Data obtained from an experimental study by Östlund et al. (2013), who used firewood from standing dead Scots pine trees with DBH ranging from 14 to 23.5 cm.
Farmers’ firewood: standing dead Scots pine trees with a DBH of 15-25 cm. We assumed that the first farmers used the same type of firewood as the Sami practicing traditional land use in the study region.
Commercially logged trees: standing living Scots pine trees with a minimum DBH of 30 cm. Data derived from the National Forest Service (Anon 1872, 1889)
Material and Methods
Demographic data 1555-1850
Taxation records (list the taxpayers, Swedish: Mantal) from the years 1555, 1600, 1661, 1699 and 1759 were used to retrieve demographic data of Sami people. Population censuses from 1810 and 1850 were used to retrieve data on the farming population and Sami population. To approximate the population number for every year between these dates we used linear interpolation between every pair of data points. We chose this approach because the population number during a certain year is more likely to be correlated with nearby years rather than distant times. The following equations were used to calculate population numbers (y) as a function of time (x, years):
1555-1600 y = 3,4898x – 5083.6
1600-1661 y = -0.4105x + 1156.8
1661-1699 y = 7.1x – 11318
1699-1759 y = 4.3283x – 6609
1759-1810 y = 0.8529x – 495.8
1810-1850 y = -1.875x + 4441.8
Further, population densities were calculated relative to the whole area of Pite lappmark (20 759 km2, including forests, mire, water and mountains).
The table below corresponds to figure 2 in the manuscript and shows the exact number of people at approximately 50 years interval of Pite lappmark
Year / 1555 / 1600 / 1661 / 1699 / 1750 / 1810 / 1850Sami / 343 / 500 / 475 / 745 / 1005 / 1048 / 973
Total / 1128 / 1565 / 2893
Farmers Arjeplog / 20 / 71 / 449
Farmer Arvidsjaur / 103 / 346 / 1471
Spatial extent and definitions of Pite lappmark
The administrative borders of Pite lappmark has changed over time. Until year 1606 it covered a large area also including the Sami village of Laisbyn, located further south (Holmbäck 1922). However, in 1606 Laisbyn administratively came to belong to the more southerly located Ume lappmark (Thordsson Hjorth 1858). By investigating the taxation records from the time period just before and after 1606, we found that all people in Laisbyn were transferred administratively to Ume lappmark from this point onward. Accordingly, in this study we defined the areal extent of Pite lappmark as covering the river valley of Piteälven i.e. the Arjeplog and Arvidsjaur municipalities that together cover an area of c. 21 000 km2. As a result, we excluded the taxpayers of Laisbyn from the taxation records of 1555 and 1600 in our analyses.
Sami felling of lichen-rich trees
To assess the relationship between numbers of stumps (resulting from felling lichen-rich trees) and number of persons we first tried to use temporal data on the creation of such stumps derived from Berg et al. (2011a) and the number of persons derived from Josefsson et al. (2010a). We found no correlation (r = 0.18, P = 0.49, R2 = 0%) between these two variables – probably because the logging of lichen-rich trees was strongly influenced by annual variations in reindeer herd size and local climate conditions. Instead, data on harvest levels of lichen-rich trees was obtained from the case study in the Tjeggelvas nature reserve by Josefsson et al. (2010b). According to the cited authors, the density of these stumps was 2.7 ha-1, reflecting a cumulative use of this resource over approximately 300 years. To estimate the impact of this specific resource use on the forest structure over 300 years we extrapolated 2.7 stumps ha-1 to 793970 ha (i.e. the total area of productive forest land and mountain coniferous forest in Pite lappmark) and divided the sum by 300.
To obtain volumes (V) of felled lichen-rich trees we used the volume function presented by Brandel (1990) for pine in northern Sweden (function 100-01, based on conditions at latitudes 65.0-66.9°):
V = 10-1.28297 * D1.93867 * (D + 20)-0.04966 * H1.81528 * (H – 1.3)-0.80910
Here, D is diameter at breast height (13.7 cm (according to Berg et al. 2011b), and H is tree height (13 m according to Josefsson et al. 2010b).
Sami harvest of Scots pine inner bark
Since inner bark from Scots pine trees was widely used as a food resource we assumed that population number was the most important determinant of the amounts harvested. Thus, to quantify the use of this resource we used demographic information derived from Josefsson et al. (2010a) and data on the density of bark-peeled trees obtained from Josefsson et al. (2010b) – both studies were carried out in a limited area of the Tjeggelvas nature reserve in the northern part of Arjeplog parish. The datasets contain detailed information on population numbers and accumulated number of bark-peeled trees for every tenth year between 1730 and 1890.
Our analysis was carried out in three steps. First, we rescaled the number of bark-peeled trees in the area (80 ha) studied by Josefsson and co-authors to the entire Scots pine forest in the Tjeggelvas nature reserve (10 890 ha) by multiplying the number of bark-peeled trees for each 10 year-period by the factor 136.125 (10 890 ha/80 ha). Second, we used linear regression (Minitab 16) to verify the relationship between the number of bark-peeled trees (dependent variable, y) and the number of persons (independent variable, x) for every tenth year. Our analysis showed that the two variables were significantly correlated (r = 0.6, P < 0.01) and that the presented model was valid for about a third of the cases (R2 adjusted = 31.8 %). Third, we used the derived regression model (y = 4.18x – 0.4) to calculate the number of bark-peeled trees in the entire area of Pite lappmark both for specific years (1555, 1600, 1661, 1699, 1759, 1810 and 1850) and for the whole study period (i.e. by using the regression model and the interpolated population numbers for each year between 1555 and 1850).
Reconstruction of forest condition and dynamics in pre-industrial times
Data on standing volumes, number of trees and annual volume increment/ingrowth of trees in different diameter classes in the 1920s was retrieved from the first National Forest Inventory (NFI, Swedish: Riksskogstaxeringen) which was performed in the study area in 1926. This sample based inventory was undertaken along 10 meter wide transects spaced 20 km apart in a northeast-southwest direction (further inventory procedures and definitions are described in NFI (1932). Scots pine trees on all land cover types were included in the survey and in our study. The annual volume increment was based on the last 10 years growth of 1615 cored Scots pines. We calculated total standing volume, number of trees and gross annual volume increment for the entire study area in diameter classes ranging from 5 to 45 cm. Results per hectare productive forest area (defined as production capacity classes I-VIII according to Jonson 1914) was also calculated, but these figures are probably slightly overestimated because c. One tenth of the standing volume was situated on forested mires or other unproductive land types.
The first commercial loggings in the study region were conducted in the late 1800s and early 1900s (Granström 1997; Andersson et al. 2005). To reconstruct pre-logging forest conditions we combined NFI data from 1926 (the oldest data available from this region) with information derived from historical records describing the forest conditions before the first commercial loggings. The latter information was derived from from the county of Dalarna - a region with similar physiogeography and climate as Pite lappmark. Quotas for the number of trees in different diameter classes (30-34, 35-39, 40-44 and 45≤ cm DBH) per hectare was derived from historical records in 1889 (unlogged forests in the Orsa municipality – see Linder and Östlund 1998) and 1923 (NFI data of logged forests in the Orsa, Mora and Älvdalen municipalities). The quotas were then applied to extrapolate the NFI data from 1926 to estimate pre-logging forest conditions (densities of living and dead trees in different diameter classes) in our study region.
To calculate net annual volume increment and account for the annual formation of dead wood (firewood resource) we applied a mortality rate of 0.4 % of the standing volume per year. This estimate lies in between 0.18 % as suggested by Bengtsson (1978) who studied a large forest region in northern Sweden dominated by production forest, and 0.6-1.2 % as suggested by (Ilvessalo 1967) and (Rouvinen et al. 2002) who studied forest dynamics in late-successional pine forests in eastern Finland. Further, we assumed that the mortality rate was evenly distributed over all diameter classes. We did not take decomposition of dead wood into account.
Historical sources
Taxation records
RA- Niels Jönsons rekenskap och opbörd i Årsnes på then skatth han
opboritth haffuer aff lapperne i Pita lapmarck wdi Westerbottnen anno 1555. Norrlands lappmarker 1555, vol. 4, häfte 2. Hela räkenskapen för Piteå lappmark
Besked opå Norlandhz samptelige lappe fijskien huadh som de rentet hafue 1601. Kort
Mantals lengder öffuer fhem lappemarker. Norrlands lappmarker 1601, vol. 10
Utdrag ur räkenskapen för Torneå lappmark 1599–1600
SVAR (Swedish Archive Information) 1661-1759. Cameral records of Västerbotten County
(Mantalslängder 1642- 1820 Västerbottens län), Pite Sami district, year 1661
(SE/SVAR/RA- 111010024/M 22a/42(1661)), year 1699 (SE/SVAR/RA-111010024/M
24/113(1699)), year 1759 (SE/SVAR/RA/55203/55203.29/90(1759:2))
Population censuses
year 1810-1850. SE/Tabellverket/Arvidsjaur/Arjeplog. The demographic database, Umeå University
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