When Seljuk Turks migrated into Asia Minor, they caused an ecological transformation by turning agricultural land into pasturage.
"because when they move into Asia Minor, they're transforming or terraforming agricultural land into pasturage." (said at 5:13:35)
The speaker references a long-standing historiographical thesis arguing that the arrival of Seljuk Turks and Türkmen nomads in medieval Anatolia led to widespread "nomadization" and the conversion of Byzantine arable farmland into pastoral rangeland. While Türkmen pastoral groups did introduce extensive transhumant pastoralism (utilizing seasonal summer pastures or yaylaks in mountainous and frontier regions), palaeoecological and environmental archaeological analyses indicate that this did not result in a total or uniform transformation of agricultural land. High-resolution sediment and pollen records from Anatolian lakes (such as Nar Gölü in Cappadocia) demonstrate that cereal-based agriculture persisted alongside pastoralism through the Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods rather than being displaced by pastureland.
- contradicts: Historical landscape change in Cappadocia (central Turkey): a palaeoecological investigati… (The Holocene 2008)
"Pollen and charcoal data indicate four principal land-use phases: ... (iii) the re-establishment of cereal-based agriculture and pastoralism from c. AD 950, with this cultural landscape being maintained through the Byzantine `Golden Age', the Seljuk and Ottoman Empires" (abstract, passage verified)
openalexfull study (doi) - context: The Yörüks: Their Origins, Expansion and Economic Role (Cedrus 2014)
"Due to the nature of animal husbandry and seasonal migrations, conflict with the central government, Seljuk or Ottoman, was at times inevitable. Due to their activities against the East Roman Empire a heavy concentration of Türkmen formed in western Anatolia. ... The regions where a sizeable Türkmen population formed were the mountainous areas with yaylak, summer pastures, along the Toros mountain chain from western Anatolia to the coasts of the Mediterranean and in the Lake District in the Isparta-Eğirdir region." (abstract, passage verified)
openalexfull study (doi)