12.8 The Little Ice Age in New Zealand
205
given the plant some protection against the cold, the ancient varieties were probably
both lower-yielding and less cold-resistant than the modern varieties now grown in
New Zealand.
A simultaneous reduction in horticultural harvests and in forest biota, shellfish
and fish stocks in the Little Ice Age, following on the heels of earlier reductions
of biota during the Warm Waihirere erosion period, may have brought starvation to
these richer areas for the first time. The global context suggests that it is unlikely,
given the severe cold of the Little Ice Age, that even these favoured areas would
have escaped exposure to starvation.
The scale of pa-building implies extreme conflict over land and resources triggered by the climate-driven destruction of biota. It is no coincidence that in New
Zealand over 98% of pa were built in horticultural areas during the Little Ice Age
to defend cultivable land and stored harvests. Both horticultural land and stored
harvests were clearly seen by the tribes in the pa areas as crucial to their survival
in a time of depleted natural food resources. How severely starvation was felt in
the richer areas is the subject of discussion in the next chapters where we show
that the extent of its impact can be estimated in some degree from demographic
evidence implicit in available data for the Maori pa and from comparison with demographic patterns in the poorer areas of New Zealand for which we have some explicit
evidence from skeletal analysis.
We need to stress that in poorer areas in New Zealand high populations at the
beginning of the Medieval Climatic Optimum are a necessary condition for significant population decline during this period. Small populations would have been
affected minimally by adverse climate for, with little competition for resources, loss
of biota would not lead to starvation.
Extreme climatic conditions and significant population decline from starvation
are both needed to establish that a context of global climate-driven demography is
relevant to New Zealand – in poorer areas during the Medieval Climatic Optimum
and in all areas during the Little Ice Age.
At the simplest level, climate researchers in New Zealand have found proxy
evidence from dendrochronology (analysis of tree rings) and speleothems (stalactites and stalagmites) for the impact of these two global periods on temperatures
in New Zealand [15]. Grant, as we have seen, supplies evidence for the reshaping
of landscape through erosion in these periods and claims widespread damage to
forests, coastlines and estuaries and their biota through warm wet erosion periods.
His evidence strongly supports the first condition to be met: that of climate extremes
damaging food resources. Comparison with the failure of crops in northern Europe
in the Little Ice Age and the loss of fish stocks and especially cod in the North
Atlantic provides a context in which to envisage conditions in New Zealand in the
Little Ice Age. The extinction of the moa and the reduction of seal populations in
this period and evidence from middens of the reduction of fish and bird species
provide evidence of loss of biota paralleling that experienced in northern Europe.
Awareness of the global context provides support for our interpretation of what, at
first glance, seems to be local evidence. This is the case, for example, for evidence
of starvation in New Zealand.
205
given the plant some protection against the cold, the ancient varieties were probably
both lower-yielding and less cold-resistant than the modern varieties now grown in
New Zealand.
A simultaneous reduction in horticultural harvests and in forest biota, shellfish
and fish stocks in the Little Ice Age, following on the heels of earlier reductions
of biota during the Warm Waihirere erosion period, may have brought starvation to
these richer areas for the first time. The global context suggests that it is unlikely,
given the severe cold of the Little Ice Age, that even these favoured areas would
have escaped exposure to starvation.
The scale of pa-building implies extreme conflict over land and resources triggered by the climate-driven destruction of biota. It is no coincidence that in New
Zealand over 98% of pa were built in horticultural areas during the Little Ice Age
to defend cultivable land and stored harvests. Both horticultural land and stored
harvests were clearly seen by the tribes in the pa areas as crucial to their survival
in a time of depleted natural food resources. How severely starvation was felt in
the richer areas is the subject of discussion in the next chapters where we show
that the extent of its impact can be estimated in some degree from demographic
evidence implicit in available data for the Maori pa and from comparison with demographic patterns in the poorer areas of New Zealand for which we have some explicit
evidence from skeletal analysis.
We need to stress that in poorer areas in New Zealand high populations at the
beginning of the Medieval Climatic Optimum are a necessary condition for significant population decline during this period. Small populations would have been
affected minimally by adverse climate for, with little competition for resources, loss
of biota would not lead to starvation.
Extreme climatic conditions and significant population decline from starvation
are both needed to establish that a context of global climate-driven demography is
relevant to New Zealand – in poorer areas during the Medieval Climatic Optimum
and in all areas during the Little Ice Age.
At the simplest level, climate researchers in New Zealand have found proxy
evidence from dendrochronology (analysis of tree rings) and speleothems (stalactites and stalagmites) for the impact of these two global periods on temperatures
in New Zealand [15]. Grant, as we have seen, supplies evidence for the reshaping
of landscape through erosion in these periods and claims widespread damage to
forests, coastlines and estuaries and their biota through warm wet erosion periods.
His evidence strongly supports the first condition to be met: that of climate extremes
damaging food resources. Comparison with the failure of crops in northern Europe
in the Little Ice Age and the loss of fish stocks and especially cod in the North
Atlantic provides a context in which to envisage conditions in New Zealand in the
Little Ice Age. The extinction of the moa and the reduction of seal populations in
this period and evidence from middens of the reduction of fish and bird species
provide evidence of loss of biota paralleling that experienced in northern Europe.
Awareness of the global context provides support for our interpretation of what, at
first glance, seems to be local evidence. This is the case, for example, for evidence
of starvation in New Zealand.