Virgin Lands divided by an Ocean: The Fate of Grasslands in the Northern Hemisphere

TY - GEN

T1 - Virgin Lands divided by an Ocean

T2 - The Fate of Grasslands in the Northern Hemisphere

AU - Moon, David

AU - Chibilev, Alexander

AU - Levykin, Sergei

N1 - I translated and annotated this article by two Russian steppe ecologists.

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - This article by the geographers Sergei Chibilev and Sergei Levykin as seen in this version, translated and annotated by David Moon, assumes a number of parallels between cultivation and exploitation of the Russian steppe and the North American prairie, both past and current. The intense cultivation of the originally fallow expanse of land led to the first global ecological crisis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While the productivity of American soil has reached a limit, there are still enormous fallow regions in Russia. The ploughing of the steppes during the Soviet era was extremely destructive; now the challenge is to increase their productivity whilst maintaining the ecosystem of the steppe.

AB - This article by the geographers Sergei Chibilev and Sergei Levykin as seen in this version, translated and annotated by David Moon, assumes a number of parallels between cultivation and exploitation of the Russian steppe and the North American prairie, both past and current. The intense cultivation of the originally fallow expanse of land led to the first global ecological crisis in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While the productivity of American soil has reached a limit, there are still enormous fallow regions in Russia. The ploughing of the steppes during the Soviet era was extremely destructive; now the challenge is to increase their productivity whilst maintaining the ecosystem of the steppe.

KW - Grasslands, Russia, North America, environmental history, comparative history

M3 - Other contribution

SN - 978-3-8047-3057-1

VL - 114

T3 - Nova Acta Leopoldina, Neue Folge

CY - Halle, Germany

ER -