As one of the human induced global environmental changes, anthropogenic land use and land cover change (LUCC) has dramatically modified the Earth's surface (
Journal of Geographical Sciences, Volume. 30, Issue 8, 1307(2020)
Reconstruction of cropland area in the European part of Tsarist Russia from 1696 to 1914 based on historical documents
To evaluate the climatic and ecological impacts of anthropogenic activities in global change research, it is essential to reconstruct historical land use and land cover change on regional and global scales. In this study, we reconstructed cropland areas for 54 provinces within the European part of Tsarist Russia (ETR) over the periods of 1696-1914 using historical data, including cropland area, population, grain consumption, and grain yield per unit area. The main results are as follows. (1) Total cropland areas and fractional cropland areas of ETR for 8 time sections during 1696-1914 were reconstructed, the former increased from 31.98×104 km2 to 147.40×104 km2, and the latter increased from 7.89% to 29.20%. The per capita cropland area decreased from 0.0246 km2 to 0.0113 km2 during 1696-1914. (2) Cropland expanded from the central and southwestern ETR to the black soil region, surrounding area of the Volga River, Ukraine region, the new Russia region, the vicinity of Ural, and north Caucasus region. (3) The expansion of territory, increase and migration of population, policies related to agricultural development and foreign trade, and the impacts of climate change were the reasons for the changes in cropland within ETR from 1696 to 1914. (4) In 1914, the cropland area and fractional cropland area of each province varied from 0.16×104 km2 and 0.76% to 5.65×104 km2 and 76.68%, respectively. (5) The comparisons show that the cropland areas of ETR in this study for 1696-1914 are higher than those in the HYDE 3.2 dataset. The main reason for this finding might be the underestimation of per capita cropland areas in the HYDE 3.2 dataset, which values remained at approximately 0.01 km2 from 1700 to 1920.
1 Introduction
As one of the human induced global environmental changes, anthropogenic land use and land cover change (LUCC) has dramatically modified the Earth's surface (
Over the past decades, a number of international research projects, such as the Land Use/Cover Change Project, the Global Land Programme and the LandCover 6k, have been implemented to promote the historical LUCC reconstruction. Several representative global datasets on historical land cover have been developed, for example, the History Database of the Global Environment (HYDE) (
The history of agricultural reclamation in Russia originated in the period of 5000 BC-6000 BC (
We have mined some historical data related to cropland use and cover such as population, cropland area, grain consumption, and grain yield per unit area in ETR since the late 17th century from historical materials, although historical records for this period are not as abundant as those since the late 18th century. Using the available historical data, a reconstruction of historical cropland area on regional and provincial scales of ETR during 1696-1914 has been made in this study. The results of this study could provide more regional reconstructions of historical LUCC over the past 300 years.
2 Materials and methods
2.1 Study Area
ETR (
Figure 1.
ETR is one of the traditional agricultural regions in Europe. From the end of the 17th century to the early 20th century, ETR was ruled by the Russian Empire. The boundaries of ETR and its subdivisions changed frequently during this period. According to provincial administrative boundaries in the early 20th century (
2.2 Data and methods
2.2.1 The data for cropland reconstruction
The data including cropland area, land area, population, grain consumption, grain yield per unit area, were used to reconstruct cropland cover on regional and provincial scales within ETR from 1696 to 1914. They were obtained from the
The data of ETR used in this study
The data of ETR used in this study
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Based on these data, the cropland covers of ETR were reconstructed for 8 time sections (1696, 1719, 1725, 1763, 1796, 1856, 1887 and 1914). The cropland covers of the 54 provinces of ETR in 1719, 1795, 1856 and 1914 were also reconstructed.
2.2.2 Methods for reconstructing total cropland area of ETR
Considering the differences in the available data, total cropland areas and fractional cropland areas of ETR for 8 time sections during 1696-1914 were reconstructed in two ways.
(1) Interconversion between total cropland area and fractional cropland area
The fractional cropland area and the total cropland area of ETR could be interconverted by Equation (1).
where
The fractional cropland areas of ETR for 1696, 1725, 1763, 1796 and 1856 were calculated from the available total cropland area by Equation (1).
The cropland areas of ETR in 1887 and 1914 were calculated from the available fractional cropland area by Equation (1).
In the calculation of the total cropland area of ETR in 1795, we assumed that the fractional cropland area of ETR in 1795 is the same as that in 1796. Thus, the cropland area of ETR in 1795 was calculated by Equation (1).
(2) Total cropland area inferred from the population
The available record that could be used to infer the cropland area in 1719 was population. We assumed that the change of per capita cropland area was approximately linear during 1696-1725. Thus, the cropland area of ETR in 1719 was calculated from the per capita cropland areas in 1696 and 1725 by Equation (2) (
where
2.2.3 Method for reconstructing the provincial cropland area
The provincial cropland areas in the 4 time sections of 1719, 1795, 1856 and 1914 within ETR were calculated by downscaling the total cropland area of ETR in each section. The basic assumption of the calculation, which is weighted by provincial population, is that the amount of grain consumption over the four years listed above is equal to the amount of grain demand in those years. This assumption was widely used since the 1920s by the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its work on grain statistics (
(1) To calculate the per capita food and feed consumption by Equation (3).
where ${{\bar{C}}_{i}}$ denotes the per capita food and feed consumption in the year of
In fact, instead of the data listed in Equation (3) for 1719, 1795, 1856 and 1914, we have only durational data covering or nearing the above-mentioned years. Thus, we used the data in the periods of 1711-1735, 1801-1810, 1851-1860 and 1909-1913 to represent the data in 1719, 1795, 1856 and 1914, respectively.
(2) To calculate the total grain consumption by Equation (4).
where
We used the provincial population data in 1719, 1795, 1856 and 1914 to calculate $\Sigma {{P}_{pi}}$, respectively. For the other data listed in Equation (4), we also used the durational data in the periods of 1711-1735, 1801-1810, 1851-1860 and 1909-1913 to represent the data in 1719, 1795, 1856 and 1914, respectively.
(3) To calculate the provincial cropland area by Equation (5).
where
A total of 54 provinces within ETR were divided into 10 sub-regions in the book
2.2.4 Method for data comparison
To evaluate the credibility of the reconstructed results in this study, the fractional cropland area, cropland area, and food and feed consumption were compared with the available values in other published literatures.
The reconstructed regional LUCC dataset on the basis of historical materials is regarded as closer to the real cropland area in the history. It could be used to assess the accuracy of the global LUCC dataset. We compared the cropland cover reconstructed in this study with the cropland cover of HYDE, the global LUCC dataset. From 1696 to 1914, the temporal resolution of HYDE (
Data comparison of the fractional cropland area, using Equation (6):
Data comparison of other indices except for the fractional cropland area, using Equation (7):
where
3 Results
3.1 Changes in cropland area of ETR during 1696-1914
The total cropland area and fractional cropland area of ETR increased simultaneously, while the per capita cropland area decreased in general, from 1696 to 1914. The changes could be divided into three phases (
Figure 2.
The first phase is from 1696 to 1763, when the total cropland area of ETR increased by 1.68 times from 31.98×104 km2 to 53.87×104 km2, and the fractional cropland area increased from 7.89% to 12.73% with an average annual growth rate of 0.07 percentiles. The per capita cropland areas increased slightly, from 0.0246 km2 in 1696 to 0.0258 km2 in 1725, and then decreased to 0.0229 km2 in 1763.
The second phase is from 1763 to 1887, when the total cropland area of ETR increased by 2.56 times from 53.87×104 km2 to 137.80×104 km2, and the fractional cropland area increased from 12.73% to 27.30% with an average annual growth rate of 0.12 percentiles. The per capita cropland areas decreased to 0.0191 km2 in 1856. Among the second phase, arable land increased by 51.04% and 36.79% in the periods of 1763-1796 and 1796-1856, respectively. After the Russian Reform in 1861, from 1856 to 1887, cropland area and fractional cropland area had increased by 23.82% and 4.49 percentiles, respectively. The rate of increase of the cropland area was less than that of 1763-1796.
The third phase is from 1887 to 1914, when the total cropland area increased from 137.80×104 km2 to 147.40×104 km2, and the fractional cropland area increased from 27.30% to 29.20% with an average annual growth rate of 0.07 percentiles. The per capita cropland areas decreased to 0.0113 km2 in 1914.
3.2 Changes in the spatial distribution of cropland cover for 1719-1914
During 1719-1914, the high fractional cropland areas were distributed in the central ETR, surrounding area of the Volga River, Ukraine region, and the new Russia region (
Figure 3.
In 1719, 79.23% of the cropland area within ETR was concentrated in 20 provinces where located in the central and southwest of ETR and the middle reaches of the Volga River. There were 17 provinces within ETR in which the fractional cropland area was greater than 20% (
Figure 4.
In 1795, 77.72% of the cropland area within ETR was concentrated in 26 provinces. There were 25 provinces within ETR where the fractional cropland area was greater than 30% (
In 1856, 74.24% of the cropland area of ETR was concentrated in 29 provinces. There were 25 provinces within ETR where the fractional cropland area was greater than 40% (
In 1914, there were 25 provinces within ETR where the fractional cropland area was greater than 50% (
3.3 The explanation for the changes in cropland
In the following sections, we explain the reasons for the changes in cropland within ETR during 1696-1914. The reasons include war and the expansion of territory, the increase and migration of population, the policies related to agricultural development and foreign trade, and climate change. The combination of these factors and the constant interaction between them best explain how Russia's cropland changed between the late 17th century and the early 20th century.
3.3.1 War and the expansion of territory
From 1696 to 1914, the Russian Empire expanded its territory to the south and west of ETR through war and gained considerable land. Among these new territories, there was much land covered by black earth and grey forest earth. The fertility of black soils and grey forest soils is superior to that of the podzolic soils of the central ETR and more suitable for agricultural development (
Black soil is widely distributed in the Ukraine region in the south of the Russian Empire, but this region often suffered from the onslaught of Tatars raiding. In the first half of the 17th century, approximately 200,000 Russians were captured as slaves by the Tatar Khanate of Crimean (
In 1795, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were divided up by the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia and Archduchy of Austria. The territory of the Russian Empire extended westward to the regions of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, and the west of Ukraine (
3.3.2 The increase and migration of population
During 1696-1914, the population of the Russian Empire increased throughout this period, although death rates were very high, on average birth rates were even higher (
In the period of 1696-1914, the population of ETR increased from 13.0 million to ~133.32 million, and the average rate of growth per annum was 4.25% over this period (
Before the early 18th century, approximately two-thirds of the population was concentrated in the northern ETR and in the non-black soil region in the central ETR (
The number of migrants to different regions in ETR from 1678 to 1915 (104 people)
The number of migrants to different regions in ETR from 1678 to 1915 (104 people)
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3.3.3 The policies related to agricultural development and foreign trade
The main form of agriculture practiced by Russian peasant was grain cultivation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, over 90% of the cropland in the Russian Empire was used for grain, and the major food grain was rye (
From 1696 to 1796, deforestation for reclamation of arable land, which promoted the increase of cropland area in this period, was a common agricultural development policy within ETR (
After the 1850s, the south of ETR became the major production area of grain exports in the Russian Empire (
During 1696-1914, reclamation occurred in surrounding area of the Volga River, the black soil region in the central ETR, the Ukraine region, new Russia region, the vicinity of Ural, and north Caucasus region. In these regions, the government issued policies to promote migration and land reclamation, and the area of cropland subsequently increased. Moreover, the major granary of the Russian Empire moved from the steppe between the Oka River and Volga River to the black soil region and surrounding area of the Volga River, then to the south and east, first to the Ukraine region and, from the early 19th century, to the new Russia region, the vicinity of Ural, and north Caucasus region (
3.3.4 The impacts of climate change
In the second half of the 18th century, the severe cold and strong winds that were unfavorable to crops were frequent in most parts of ETR, which resulted in a decrease of grain yield (
4 Discussion
4.1 Credibility of the reconstructed results
This study reconstructed the cropland area of ETR for 8 time sections over the late 17th to the early 20th centuries using data on cropland area, population, grain consumption and grain yield per unit area from historical documents.
To evaluate the credibility of the reconstructed results in this study, we compared them with the available values in other published literatures. The differences in fractional cropland area, food and feed consumption, and cropland area were less than 10% (
Differences of fractional cropland area, per capita food and feed consumption, and cropland area in ETR from 1696 to 1914 between this study and other studies
Differences of fractional cropland area, per capita food and feed consumption, and cropland area in ETR from 1696 to 1914 between this study and other studies
|
4.2 Comparison with the cropland area derived from the HYDE 3.2 dataset
We compared our findings on the total cropland area of ETR with that derived from the HYDE 3.2 dataset for years close to the 8 time sections. According to the HYDE dataset, the total cropland area of ETR increased from 15.47×104 km2 to 105.85×104 km2 during 1700-1920 (
Figure 5.
As discussed by Kaplan (
4.3 Uncertainties
Studies concerning LUCC over the past 300 years in ETR are rare. Therefore, we reconstructed the cropland area of ETR for 1696-1914. The uncertainties of this work have also been considered.
First, according to Equation (3), the per capita food and feed consumption was calculated by the urban food and feed consumption, rural food and feed consumption, and the total popu- lation. The result calculated by Equation (3) is the per capita food and feed consumption on regional scale; however, this value may differ on provincial scales. Thus, a reconstruction of the per capita food and feed consumption of different provinces within ETR that is based on more historical documents is needed in future studies. Second, there are uncertainties associated with the calculation of the total grain consumption during this period. Because the amount of grain transported into each province was difficult to obtain (
5 Conclusions
The cropland areas of ETR on regional and provincial scales for 1696-1914 were estimated based on the historical records. The major conclusions are as follows.
From 1696 to 1914, the total cropland area of ETR increased from 31.98×104 km2 to 147.40×104 km2, the fractional cropland area increased from 7.89% to 29.20%, and the per capita cropland area decreased from 0.0246 km2 to 0.0113 km2. The total cropland area in the 8 time sections showed three phases: 1696-1763, 1763-1887 and 1887-1914.
With the expansion of territory, increase and migration of population, development of agricultural production and foreign trade, and the impacts of climate change, the cropland in ETR expanded from central to eastern, southern and western regions of ETR during 1719 to 1914. In 1914, the cropland area and fractional cropland area in each province covered from 0.16×104 km2 to 5.65×104 km2 and 0.76% to 76.68%, respectively; the high cropland covers of ETR were mainly distributed in the black soil region, surrounding area of the Volga River, Ukraine region, the new Russia region, the vicinity of Ural and north Caucasus region.
The relative differences in cropland area of ETR between this study and HYDE 3.2 dataset enlarged from 28.19% in 1914 to 51.63% in 1696. The per capita cropland areas of ETR decreased from 0.0246 km2 to 0.0113 km2 during 1696-1914 in this study; however, they remained at ~0.01 km2 from 1700 to 1920 in HYDE 3.2 dataset.
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Zhilong ZHAO, Xiuqi FANG, Yu YE, Chengpeng ZHANG, Diyang ZHANG. Reconstruction of cropland area in the European part of Tsarist Russia from 1696 to 1914 based on historical documents[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2020, 30(8): 1307
Category: Research Articles
Received: Dec. 28, 2019
Accepted: Apr. 30, 2020
Published Online: Apr. 21, 2021
The Author Email: YE Yu (yeyuleaffish@bnu.edu.cn)