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1. Linking subsistence harvest diversity and productivity to adaptive capacity in an Alaskan food sharing network

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23573  

   Scaggs, Shane A. ; Gerkey, Drew ; McLaughlin, Katherine R. ( February 2021 , American Journal of Human Biology)

   Although anthropogenic climate change poses existential challenges for Indigenous communities in the Arctic, these challenges are not entirely unprecedented. Over many generations, Arctic peoples have developed a wide range of behavioral strategies to navigate environmental change and uncertainty, and these strategies provide a foundation for contemporary adaptation.

   In this article, we focus on mixed cash‐subsistence economies and the social networks that underlie them in Alaska. The patterns of food production, labor exchange, and food sharing in subsistence‐oriented communities throughout Alaska are driven by the productivity of keystone households who regularly harvest and share resources within and between communities.

   Building on previous research suggesting the critical importance of these networks to community resilience, we use network analysis to investigate whether patterns in resource transfers between households are associated with subsistence harvest diversity—the diversity of species harvested by a household unit. We use exponential random graph models to describe the structure of a sharing network from Aniak, Alaska, and model the links between harvest productivity, harvest diversity, and household position in this network.

   Our results indicate that both productivity and diversity are positively associated with network connections, and that productivity alone provides an incomplete model of network structure.

   We suggest that subsistence harvest diversity may play a unique role in supporting adaptive capacity and resilience by maintaining the productivity of keystone households despite changing environments and sustaining social network structures that circulate resources throughout the community. Harvest diversity may also serve as a broad indicator of Indigenous ecological knowledge and a tangible representation of cultural practices, values, and worldviews that underlie subsistence in Alaska.

   Greater attention to harvest diversity is important for understanding how subsistence networks adapt to environmental change and uncertainty linked to social and ecological dynamics of anthropogenic climate change.

    

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2. Housing insecurity in Alaska, 2020-ongoing

   https://doi.org/10.18739/A2BK16R1B  

   D. McNair, Lisa ; Nicewonger, Todd ; Fritz, Stacey ( March 2023 , NSF Arctic Data Center)

   This study initiated an exploration into how community members, specialists in housing issues, and social scientists might collaborate to address homelessness in Alaska. Through interviews and participant observation of planning meetings and related activities, the researchers are gathering insights from design experts, community organizers, and experts working on urban-rural homelessness in Alaska. This includes gathering information about cold weather design processes and issues facing urban-rural homelessness in Alaska, as well as the identification of possible research questions that can inform the development of a grant application for a multi-year research study. The study includes in-person as well as virtual research activities. Because of geographic distances, the majority of initial research activities were conducted virtually, but in-person field site visits began to take place June 15, 2021, and subsequent trips have taken place from August 2021-onward. These research trips involve site visits, participation in meetings, and in-person interviews when possible. Phase 1: 24 initial interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders about housing insecurity in Alaska and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes interviewees from remote villages, from the Association of Alaskan Housing Authorities (AAHA), homeless advocates, designers, social scientists, engineers, and builders. Topics included myths about homelessness, homeless versus houseless terminology, research organizations, policies, impacts of pandemic, housing needs, and contrasting strategies. Analysis and synthesis with subsequent data is ongoing. 01: policy 02: interview with researcher 03: homelessness - Anchorage - rural communities - data sharing 04: design in rural communities 05: housing shortages in rural communities 06: technical issues in housing - collaborating with rural communities 07: homeless community in Fairbanks 08: history of Cold Climate Housing Research Center 09: design - homelessness - Anchorage 10: homelessness - rural/hub/urban - need for housing design repository 11: homelessness - Nome - Savoonga - designers need to visit villages 12: reverse interview - designer interviews researchers 13: homelessness - Anchorage - Bethel - housing costs 14: homelessness - rural/hub/urban spectrum - subsistence - houseless term 15: homelessness data and Bethel - impacts of pandemic - myths 16: homelessness data and Bethel - impacts of pandemic 17: ISERC (Integrated Security Education and Research Center) research 18: homelessness data and Bethel - CARES Act 19: homelessness data (gaps) and Bethel - CARES Act 20: homelessness data and Bethel 21: designer - public awareness and museum exhibits 22: veterans and community organizer 23: AAHA staff member 24: homelessness - Fairbanks - pandemic impacts on rescue missions Phase 2: 49 additional interviews were conducted with support from NSF funding (NSF 2103356: RAPID: COVID-19, Remote Ethnography, and the Rural Alaskan Housing Crisis). A meta-data description of the participants and topics are attached ('RAPID_interview_list___Descriptions'). 

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3. The value of community technology workers for LPG use: A pilot in Shirati, Tanzania

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-022-00331-x  

   Gill-Wiehl, Annelise ; Sievers, Sara ; Kammen, Daniel M. ( January 2022 , Energy, Sustainability and Society)

   Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 calls for the adoption and continued use of clean-burning stoves by the 2.9 billion people relying on unclean fuels (both solid biomass and kerosene). However, to date, the clean cooking literature has found low rates of efficient stove adoption and continued use. This paper presents the application of a public health community engagement model to the use of clean cooking fuels. We implemented a pilot study with Community Technology Workers (CTWs) as a means to overcome maintenance, education, and behavioral barriers to clean fuel use in rural Tanzania.

   The intervention was a free 6 kg Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder and stove coupled with education from a local technically trained CTW on LPG use. We evaluated the training, work, and impact of a CTW on LPG use on 30 randomly selected households from two villages in a rural district of Tanzania over a 1-year period. After an initial baseline survey, technically trained local CTWs educated the households on safe LPG use and conducted 34 follow up surveys over the next year on their cooking fuel use. Additionally, we conducted qualitative interviews with all households and a focus group with six of the households.

   The results from the mixed methods approach show that 80% of families (n = 24) consistently refilled their LPG cylinders and ~ 40% of households exclusively used LPG. Households reported appreciating the CTWs’ visits for providing education and maintenance support, giving them confidence to use LPG safely, reminding them to save for their cylinder, and providing a community driven effort to use clean fuel.

   The findings demonstrate the feasibility of this type of community infrastructure model to promote and facilitate consistent LPG use, but suggest the need to couple this local support with financial mechanisms (e.g., a microsavings program). This model could be a mechanism to increase LPG use, particularly in rural, low-income areas.

    

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4. Per‐ and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Mercury in Arctic Alaska Coastal Fish of Subsistence Importance

   https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5717  

   Fraley, Kevin M. ; Hamman, Carolyn R. ; Sutton, Trent M. ; Robards, Martin D. ; Jones, Tahzay ; Whiting, Alex ( January 2023 , Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry)

   Abstract Per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and mercury (Hg) are harmful compounds that are widely present in the environment, partly due to spills and atmospheric pollution. The presence of PFAS and Hg in the tissues of animals that are harvested by rural and Indigenous Alaskans is of great concern, yet fish in Arctic Alaska have not previously been assessed for concentrations of PFAS. Fish species of subsistence and recreational importance were collected from nearshore Beaufort and Chukchi Sea, Alaska habitats and assessed for PFAS and total mercury concentrations [THg]. We found multiple PFAS compounds present at low levels (<3 μg/kg) in the muscle tissue of inconnu, broad whitefish, Dolly Varden char, Arctic flounder, saffron cod, humpback whitefish, and least cisco. In addition, [THg] levels in these fish were well below levels triggering local fish consumption guidelines (<170 μg/kg). These initial results indicate no evidence of the Alaska Arctic nearshore fish species examined as an avenue of PFAS or Hg exposure to people who harvest them. However, sources and trends of these contaminants in the Arctic require further investigation. Environ Toxicol Chem 2023;00:1–7. © 2023 SETAC 

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5. Citizen science across ages, cultures, and learning environments in Alaska

   Spellman, K.V. ; Shaw, J.D. ; Villano, C.P. ; Mulder, C.P.H. ; Sparrow, E.B. ; Cost, D. ( May 2019 , Rural connections)

   Building community with rural and underrepresented groups has been a challenge in the field of citizen science. At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, a team of scientists, educators, Extension professionals, and evaluators have joined efforts to take on this challenge across Alaska. The goals for Arctic Harvest-Public Participation in Scientific Research are to: 1) investigate how shifts in environmental conditions affect the fate of subsistence berries and timing of berry loss from plants in fall and winter across Alaska; and 2) improve the participation in and effectiveness of citizen science across diverse audiences, particularly at high latitudes where a high proportion of communities have populations underrepresented in STEM. We present the assets that collaboration across a land grant university brought to the table, and the Winterberry Citizen Science program design elements we have developed to engage our 1080+ volunteer berry citizen scientists ages three through elder across urban and rural, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and formal and informal learning settings. Our interdisciplinary team developed and implemented a program that provides in-person or online support for berry monitoring and data collection, and accommodates different age levels and settings. We also developed and tested an innovative program model that weaves storytelling throughout the citizen science learning cycle, from berries stories from the larger community, to stories of the citizen science process, to stories developed from berry data being collected and applied to future scenarios in a changing climate. The variety of program modifications we created have been highly effective helping reach a variety of settings and age levels. In both informal and formal learning environments in our first two years of the program we have had 568 pre-K and elementary-aged (age 3-12), 424 secondary-aged (age 12-18) youth participants and 107 adults (ages 18+), with 44% of participants coming from groups underrepresented in STEM, and 100% of groups completing berry monitoring throughout the fall. These results highlight the importance of designing the citizen science program with cultural relevance, program delivery options, and relationships between participants and scientists, while remaining committed to making a substantial scientific contribution. 

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