online event: 800-years of locust invasions in the Carpathian Basin and Central Europe

 online event: 800-years of locust invasions in the Carpathian Basin and Central Europe: causes, frequency, intensity and duration, impacts, step changes and the development of prevention strategies, Mar 20 (Wed), 2024, 15:00 CET

Presenter: Andrea Kiss (Technische Universität Wien)

please register to get zoom link (the link will be sent before the meeting): http://tinyurl.com/5n6r6mnh .

Due to their Biblical context, locust invasions played an especially important role among documented natural hazards throughout the last millennium. In the Central European locust invasions of the last over 800 years the Carpathian Basin played a key role: all the invasions crossed and continued to the west through the Carpathian Basin, the main nesting place of the locusts in Central Europe. In the Carpathian Basin up to the 1880s migratory locusts, reportedly coming from the Black Sea area, played a leading role, while after the 1880s migratory locusts were replaced by other locust species (Moroccan, Italian) of possibly more southerly origin. Locust invasions often followed and/or coincided with (multiannual) drought periods; and while several mass outbreaks and invasions occurred in the Carpathian Basin, after the mid-18th century only some of them continued to West-Central Europe. Based on an 800-year long data series, the possible origin(s), frequency, length, spatial extension, potential causes and consequences of locust outbreaks and invasions are discussed in the presentation. Nested for multiple years in the Carpathian Basin during the invasions, locusts caused significant damages. Although to a limited extent early prevention methods are known already from late medieval times, and more and more information is available about fighting locusts in the 16th and 17th centuries, it is only the mid-18th century when prevention activities became more intensive, and state-organised actions became more and more effective. The real break-through only happened in the 20th century with the introduction of mechanized defence and integrated pest management.

Andrea Kiss is an environmental historian, working mostly on historical climate and environment, historical floods and droughts, and social-environmental interaction. She holds MA, MSc and PhD in History, Geography and Medieval Studies, BA level degree in Latin. She published over a hundred scientific studies including coauthorship in Nature and Science papers, book and book edition at Springer and Routledge.