The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

TG

Tomas Germundsson

Professor emeritus

TG

Anthropogenic Open Land in Boreal Landscapes : Investigations into the Creation and Maintenance of Arable Fields on Swedish Farms

Author

  • Lovisa Solbär

Summary, in English

The human-induced open land (cropland, pasture) in the predominantly forested boreal landscapes relies on arable land use; it thus represents an active intervention to hold back forest regrowth. The thesis investigates the practical management decisions by landholders on discrete farms, which in Sweden often comprise both forest and arable lands. The theoretical framework utilizes the concepts timespace, landscape, orientation and commitment to understand how the farmer relates to the land. The study draws on farm cases in various parts of the country, and links land-cover continuity on arable fields and forest clearance with land-use decision-making as a temporally and spatially situated activity. Also when retiring from active land management (due to old age or farm-external income) farmers continue to maintain arable fields, a finding that is interpreted as deriving from the values perceived in the land and the importance of their reinforcement for the landholder identity. Locational fragmentation of managed arable land scattered in the landscape, the increasing of farm sizes following profitability concerns, and a local shortage of land together with other factors induce land clearance on contemporary farms, preferably near the farm centre and contiguous with already managed fields. This finding is understandable when considering time as a resource in farming, and suggests that contemporary boreal landscapes may contain areas that are subjected to an opening-up land-cover dynamics, against the prevailing trend of reforestation.

Department/s

  • Department of Human Geography
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Publication/Series

Meddelanden från Institutionen för kulturgeografi och ekonomisk geografi. Avhandlingar

Issue

10

Document type

Dissertation

Publisher

Lund University

Topic

  • Human Geography

Keywords

  • Landscape
  • timespace
  • time-geography
  • farming
  • boreal land use
  • time-economy
  • embedded values

Status

Published

Supervisor

  • Tomas Germundsson
  • Moira von Wright

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 978-91-7473-621-2 (print)
  • ISBN: 978-91-7473-622-9 (pdf)

Defence date

5 April 2014

Defence time

13:00

Defence place

Världen, Geocentrum I, Sölvegatan 10, Lund

Opponent

  • Gunhild Setten (professor)