Greenland
Greenland is the largest island in the world covering an area of
nearly 2.5 million km2. Stretching nearly 2,600 km north-south
from approximately 60º to 84º North, more than 80% of the island
is covered by ice caps and glaciers. The overall picture of soil in
Greenland reflects variations in the present-day and past climates,
the geology and land use history of the territory.
The ice free landscape of Greenland, an area of 384,850 km2
along the coast, shows strongly diverse climates. Wet Low Arctic
conditions in the south grade to desert-like High Arctic conditions
in the north. The Inland Ice Sheet, with an elevation of more than
3,000 m, has a significant influence on atmospheric circulation. This
immense mass of ice causes a climatic gradient from the outer
coastal areas, which experience moist and oceanic climates, to
inland landscapes close to the ice field where the climate is more
continental with warmer summers and cold winters. This zonation
of climate has a strong influence on soil development. However,
other soil forming factors are also locally important and occur
all over the ice-free landscapes as a result of mountainous relief,
parent material, drainage and permafrost.
In general, the southward increase in warmth and precipitation
provides a more ‘luxuriant’ and denser vegetation cover and is
associated with deeper and more intense soil development than in
the north of the country. In the southernmost parts of Greenland,
sporadic occurrences of permafrost are limited to wet landscapes.
Better drained areas are covered by birch and willow shrub-like
forests that support the widespread formation of Podzols.
The northern and continental regions are dominated by Cryosols.
Shallow and humus-poor polar desert-like soils occur with humusrich, deeper soils in the south and along the coast. Most soils are
strongly affected by permafrost processes and cryoturbation.
Soil development in Greenland
During the Holocene (last 10,000 years), considerable changes of
climate have occurred in Greenland. In the early Holocene and
especially around the Holocene climatic optimum (circa. 8,0006,000 years ago), the average temperatures in Greenland were
probably 3-5 ºC higher than today. Both the Inland Ice and local
glaciers occupied smaller areas. In the mid-Holocene, and markedly
around 3,000 years ago, the climate in Greenland turned colder and
A Podzol paleosol of mid-Holocene age from the National Park in the
High Arctic of Northeast Greenland. The soil was exposed to lateHolocene cryoturbation and subsequent covering by fine-grained aeolian
sediments. Carbon-14 dating of the humus fractions in the remains of
the spodic horizon (around 30 cm depth in the photograph) indicates a
period of active Podzol formation between 6000-3000 years ago. These
dates coincide with the transition period from the relative dry and warm
Holocene climatic optimum to a wetter and the much colder climate of the
last 3000 years. (BHJ)
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About four-fifths of Greenland is covered by the Greenland ice sheet. The weight of
the ice has depressed the central land area to form a basin which is more than 300
metres below sea-level. The cold climate limits extensive soil formation. (BHJ)
wetter resulting in an increased extent of ice in the landscape. The
active layer became shallower and more intense cryoturbation took
place. Wind and water erosion strongly affected formerly stable
landscapes and soils. Evidence for this change in climate is preserved
in numerous paleosols (see page 125) that are widespread in the
High Arctic northern half of Greenland.
The cultural history of Greenland goes back approximately 4,500 years
when the first Inuit people immigrated from Asia and North America.
During a relatively warm period around 980 AD, Vikings (the Norse
culture) from Europe settled in Greenland. During their 500 year
presence in South and West Greenland, the landscape, vegetation and
soils were strongly affected by their agricultural activities.
Greenland is a good example of the interaction between soil and
people: communities always look to settle where soil provides them
with the basis for life.
Extensive soil erosion occurred as a result of overgrazing by sheep
which exceeded the carrying capacity of the vegetation. This
degradation of the land was made worse by a general climatic
cooling during the later part of the Viking settlement. As a result of
the Viking presence, Anthrosols and heavily eroded landscapes are
found in South and West Greenland.
A soil profile from South Greenland shows several phases of development
over time. The various layers correspond to cycles of sedimentation and
soil formation. Analysis of the profile and Carbon-14 dating of charcoal
fragments and seeds allows the history of the site to be reconstructed.
Evidence of the earliest Viking settlements, in approximately 1000 AD,
can be found approximately 50 cm below the present land surface. At
that time the soil at the site was a Podzol and is indicated by the lower
pale coloured horizon. From the very beginning, Viking activities caused
both water and wind erosion to increase at this site. The degradation of
the land initiated the deposition of aeolian sediments and fluvial sands
and gravels. After the Vikings left Greenland in the fifteenth century, the
soils and landscapes stabilized allowing the formation of an upper Podzol
which is indicated by the pale horizon at a depth of around 20 cm. This
soil has subsequently being buried by around 15 cm of aeolian sediments
as a result of reactivated soil erosion due to modern sheep breeding
practices. (BHJ)
A soil profile from Disko Island in the southern High Arctic of West
Greenland showing an early-Holocene Podzol paleosol. The parent
material is a coarse-textured fluvial sand. A covered undisturbed humusenriched A horizon can be seen at a depth of approximately 10-15 cm.
Today, Podzol formation is only observed in the southernmost subarctic
parts of Greenland. Aeolian and niveo-aeolian sediments from the late
Holocene cold periods overlay the relict Podzol profile. (BHJ)
Soil and the Vikings!
Soil Atlas of the Northern Circumpolar Region | Northern Soils: A Local Perspective