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The article discusses the close relationship between the Yupik people of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, and walruses. The Yupik have relied on walruses for food, materials, and cultural expression. However, the Pacific walrus population was severely depleted by whalers in the late 1800s, leading to starvation and hardship for the island's communities. Today, the changing environment and increased human activity pose a double threat to walruses and the Yupik way of life. Efforts are being made to protect walruses and sustain the knowledge and skills needed to continue relying on them. The article emphasizes the importance of respect for walruses and supporting the rights of Indigenous communities. [Extracted from the article]

The Alutiit/Sugpiat and dAXunhyuu (Eyak) are coast people of Southcentral Alaska making up the seven Tribes of the Chugach Region of the Prince William Sound, lower Copper River, and lower Cook Inlet. For Alaska Native Tribes, the land and waters are essential for food, culture, and traditional knowledge. Through guidance from member Tribes and close partnerships with regional Alaska Native organizations, CRRC brings Tribal voices to marine mammal management in the Chugach Region. [Extracted from the article]

Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) are an integral part of many Arctic Indigenous cultures and contribute to food security for communities from Greenland, across northern Canada and Alaska to Chukotka, Russia. Although the harvesting and stewardship practices of Indigenous peoples vary among regions and have shifted and adapted over time, central principles of respect for beluga and sharing of the harvest have remained steadfast. In addition to intra-community cooperation to harvest, process and use beluga whales, rapid environmental change in the Arctic has underscored the need for inter-regional communication as well as collaboration with scientists and managers to sustain beluga populations and their cultural and nutritional roles in Arctic communities. Our paper, written by the overlapping categories of researchers, hunters, and managers, first provides an overview of beluga hunting and collaborative research in seven regions of the Arctic (Greenland; Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Canada; Alaska; and Chukotka). Then we present a more detailed case study of collaboration, examining a recent research and management project that utilizes co-production of knowledge to address the conservation of a depleted population of beluga in Nunavik, Canada. We conclude that sustaining traditional values, establishing collaborative management efforts, the equitable inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge, and respectful and meaningful collaborations among hunters, researchers and managers are essential to sustaining healthy beluga populations and the peoples who live with and depend upon them in a time of rapid social and environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been increased recognition of the importance of a nexus approach to optimize food, energy, and water (FEW) security at regional and global scales. Remote communities in the Arctic and Subarctic regions in Alaska provide unique examples of closed and isolated systems, wherein the FEW nexus not only needs to be examined to lend resilience to these vulnerable communities but that could also serve as small-scale test beds for a wider and systematic understanding of the FEW nexus. In this short communication, looking at the FEW nexus in Cordova, Alaska, through an energy lens, we introduce an approach (referred to as the "MicroFEWs approach") that may assist remote communities in Alaska in making informed decisions regarding the use of renewable energy to increase FEW security. Our example uses the MicroFEWs approach to assess the impacts of increased renewable energy generation on FEW security in the community, more specifically to food security through potential changes to the community's fish processing industry. This approach can serve as a basis for investigating the FEW nexus in varying contexts and locales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human-environment connections are the subject of much study, and the details of those connections are crucial factors in effective environmental management. In a large, interdisciplinary study of the eastern Bering Sea ecosystem involving disciplines from physical oceanography to anthropology, one of the research teams examined commercial fisheries and another looked at subsistence harvests by Alaska Natives. Commercial fisheries and subsistence harvests are extensive, demonstrating strong connections between the ecosystem and the humans who use it. At the same time, however, both research teams concluded that the influence of ecosystem conditions on the outcomes of human activities was weaker than anticipated. Likely explanations of this apparently loose coupling include the ability of fishers and hunters to adjust to variable conditions, and the role of social systems and management in moderating the direct effects of changes in the ecosystem. We propose a new conceptual model for future studies that incorporates a greater range of social factors and their dynamics, in addition to similarly detailed examinations of the ecosystem itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alaska Native subsistence hunters and fishers are engaged in environmental sampling, influenced by harvest technology and cultural preferences as well as biogeographical factors. We compared subsistence harvest patterns in 35 communities along the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort coasts of Alaska to identify affinities and groupings, and to compare those results with previous ecological analyses done for the same region. We used hierarchical cluster analysis to reveal spatial patterns in subsistence harvest records of coastal Alaska Native villages from the southern Bering Sea to the Beaufort Sea. Three main clusters were identified, correlating strongly with geography. The main division separates coastal villages of western Alaska from arctic villages along the northern Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and on islands of the Bering Sea. K-means groupings corroborate this result, with some differences. The second node splits the arctic villages, along the Chukchi, Beaufort and northern Bering Seas, where marine mammals dominate the harvest, from those on islands of the Bering Sea, characterized by seabird and seal harvests. These patterns closely resemble eco-regions proposed on biological grounds. Biogeography thus appears to be a significant factor in groupings by harvest characteristics, suggesting that subsistence harvests are a viable form of ecosystem sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the commercial fur seal hunt in 1984, the economy of the Pribilof Islands, Alaska, has lacked a stable, lasting basis. As a contribution to the effort to understand and promote the effective management of the Pribilof Islands as a social–ecological system, we examined current and recent conditions on the islands to assess local perceptions of, and prospects for, economic, social and environmental well-being. We found few correlations between environmental conditions and socio-economic indicators. The lack of apparent connection between population levels and economic or environmental stimuli is likely attributable to one or more of several factors: (a) modest economic dependence on the environment; (b) predominance of other economic inputs to the economies of the islands; (c) islanders basing residence choices largely on non-economic factors; and (d) the islanders' tolerance for economic fluctuations and uncertainty. These results suggest economic analysis alone is insufficient to explain the dynamics of this social–ecological system, contrary to many other case studies and an expectation of tight coupling and clear connections between society and ecology in the Pribilofs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examines the factors causing the recent decline of black leather chiton (Katharina tunicata) on the rocky shores in Kenai Peninsula, Alasaka. The strong evidence in the study indicated that the depletion of Katharina density and biomass is caused by human exploitation and sea otter predation. The traditional ecological knowledge showed that several underwater invertebrates, such as crab, clams, and sea urchin, have serially declined since 1960 while reduction in chiton's size and densities was the most recent. The timing of the chiton's declination was coincident with the changes in human behavior and the re-establishment of sea otters.

Human activities are altering many factors that determine the fundamental properties of ecological and social systems. Is sustainability a realistic goal in a world in which many key process controls are directionally changing? To address this issue, we integrate several disparate sources of theory to address sustainability in directionally changing social-ecological systems, apply this framework to climate-warming impacts in Interior Alaska, and describe a suite of policy strategies that emerge from these analyses. Climate warming in Interior Alaska has profoundly affected factors that influence landscape processes (climate regulation and disturbance spread) and natural hazards, but has only indirectly influenced ecosystem goods such as food, water, and wood that receive most management attention. Warming has reduced cultural services provided by ecosystems, leading to some of the few institutional responses that directly address the causes of climate warming, e.g., indigenous initiatives to the Arctic Council. Four broad policy strategies emerge: (i) enhancing human adaptability through learning and innovation in the context of changes occurring at multiple scales; (ii) increasing resilience by strengthening negative (stabilizing) feedbacks that buffer the system from change and increasing options for adaptation through biological, cultural, and economic diversity; (iii) reducing vulnerability by strengthening institutions that link the high-latitude impacts of climate warming to their low-latitude causes; and (iv) facilitating transformation to new, potentially more beneficial states by taking advantage of opportunities created by crisis. Each strategy provides societal benefits, and we suggest that all of them be pursued simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study that documented the traditional ecological knowledge of the Alaska Native hunters of beluga whales in Cook Inlet to add information available on the population. Importance of summer feeding to Cook Inlet belugas; Predation by killer whales; Information on beluga cows and calves.

Although wildfire has been central to the ecological dynamics of Interior Alaska for 5000 yr, the role of humans in this dynamic is not well known. As a multidisciplinary research team, together with native community partners, we analyzed patterns of human-fire interaction in two contiguous areas of Interior Alaska occupied by different Athabaskan groups. The Koyukon in the western Interior considered fire a destructive force and had no recollection or oral history of using fire for landscape management. Low lightning-strike density and moist climate constrained the effects of lightning fires, and a subsistence dependence on salmon, a relatively predictable resource, resulted in a trilocal residency pattern. In this environment the occurrence of wildfire would have negatively impacted territorial use and the exploitation of wildlife resources. In contrast, the Gwich'in of the eastern Interior actively used fires to manage the landscape. The Gwich'in territory experienced a higher lightning-strike density and a corresponding increase in wildfire activity. The Gwich'in showed greater mobility in hunting moose and caribou, their less spatially predictable subsistence resources, which enabled them to avoid and or target a range of habitats affected by wildfires. The contrasts between these two neighboring Athabaskan groups indicate different uses and views of wildfire that are derived from their cultural adaptation to local biophysical and ecological settings. These findings call into question the commonly held view that native peoples of North America pervasively and near universally modified landscapes through the use of fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food, energy, and water (FEW) are basic needs for well-being and quality of life. Assessing FEW security allows residents, communities, and policy makers to make informed decisions about how to sustain and improve well-being. We have developed a FEW security assessment framework that examines four components of security: availability, access, quality, and preference. With the help of local community members, we interviewed 114 households in three rural Alaska communities to assess FEW security, drivers and outcomes of FEW security, and potential interactions among FEW components and with renewable energy (RE) developments. While FEW security was high overall, preference and quality, especially for food, was lower. Food harvested from the local environment (i.e. subsistence) was necessary to include in security assessments given that 24% of participants reported insecurity when asked about contemporary sources (i.e. purchased) versus 5% reporting insecurity for subsistence food sources (i.e., harvested). The major influences on FEW security tended to originate from outside the community, including factors such as transportation, income, fuel prices, and weather. One internal factor, health, was both a driver and an outcome of FEW security. Satisfaction with RE varied (42%-68%) with dissatisfaction due to unreliability, uncertainty of the economic benefit, desire for other types of RE, or wanting more RE (n = 6). Communication about RE projects was key to managing expectations, promoting knowledge, and identifying benefits for residents. Participants did not identify linkages between RE and FEW security. Our assessment tool can be used by communities and policy makers to contextualize FEW security into more insightful and specific components, allowing for identification of attainable actions to improve FEW security and thus individual and community well-being., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Climate change incurs costs, but government adaptation budgets are limited. Beyond a certain point, individuals must bear the costs or adapt to new circumstances, creating political-economic tipping points that we explore in three examples. First, many Alaska Native villages are threatened by erosion, but relocation is expensive. To date, critically threatened villages have not yet been relocated, suggesting that we may already have reached a political-economic tipping point. Second, forest fires shape landscape and ecological characteristics in interior Alaska. Climate-driven changes in fire regime require increased fire-fighting resources to maintain current patterns of vegetation and land use, but these resources appear to be less and less available, indicating an approaching tipping point. Third, rapid sea level rise, for example from accelerated melting of the Greenland ice sheet, will create a choice between protection and abandonment for coastal regions throughout the world, a potential global tipping point comparable to those now faced by Arctic communities. The examples illustrate the basic idea that if costs of response increase more quickly than available resources, then society has fewer and fewer options as time passes.