Climate change and variations in mountain pasture values in the central-eastern Italian Alps in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

摘要

This study investigates variations in pasture lease rents during the eight-eenth and nineteenth centuries in a sector of the Italian Alps and how these corre-late with climate changes. Analysis of the rents in the three data sets clearly demon-strates a sharp increase over the period considered, which can generally be ascribedto increased human pressure following population growth during the same period.Oscillations in the values obtained for fifty-year periods between the last half of theeighteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth suggest a strong connectionwith environmental and climatic factors. Increases or decreases in temperature seemto have a less marked and less direct effect on the values of grazing lands close to theupper limit of vegetation, while socio-economic and infrastructural signals impingesignificantly on climate signals on the grazing lands at lower altitudes.