The Norse landnam´ on the North Atlantic islands: an environmental impact assessment

The Norse colonisation or landnam´ of the North Atlantic islands of the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland
from the ninth century AD onwards provides opportunities to examine human environmental impacts on ‘pristine’
landscapes on an environmental gradient from warmer, more maritime conditions in the east to colder, more continental
conditions in the west. This paper considers key environmental contrasts across the Atlantic and initial settlement
impacts on the biota and landscape. Before landnam´ , the modes of origin of the biota (which resulted in boreotemperate affinities), a lack of endemic species, limited diversity, and no grazing mammals on the Faroes or Iceland,
were crucial in determining environmental sensitivity to human impact and, in particular, the impact of introduced
domestic animals. Gathering new data and understanding their geographical patterns and changes through time are seen
as crucial when tackling fundamental questions about human interactions with the environment, which are relevant to
both understanding the past and planning for the future.