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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. Setting Up Roots: Opportunities for Biocultural Restoration in Recently Inhabited Settings

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su15032775  

   Hunt, Carter A. ; Jones, Melanie E. ; Bustamante, Ernesto ; Zambrano, Carla ; Carrión-Klier, Carolina ; Jäger, Heinke ( February 2023 , Sustainability)

   Biocultural approaches to restoration, which recognize the unique ways of understanding of socioecological challenges by Indigenous and local communities, have gained traction in recent decades. Yet, less attention has focused on biocultural opportunities where there is no Indigenous population or traditional knowledge to draw upon. This ethnographic study inductively assesses data gathered from interviews with farm owners on Isabela Island in the Galápagos Islands, where human presence is a function of recent migration. These interviews, corroborated with archival information and participant observation, center on farmer attitudes regarding restoration of Scalesia cordata, a highly endangered plant species, endemic to Isabela. The resulting analysis identified four themes of overlap with the biocultural restoration literature: cultural keystone species, sense of place, informational pathways, and recognition of socio-ecological feedback loops. Findings indicate that Scalesia remains a valued cultural keystone species providing tangible and intangible benefits to local residents, and its survival serves as a metaphor for farmers’ own wellbeing. Thus, even locations where place-based knowledge by a native population is not evident, critical biocultural elements exist that can be integrated into restoration efforts. Farmers also exhibited clear connections between restoration and tourism in Galápagos, paving the way for the application of biocultural theory to the analysis of tourism-supported restoration efforts elsewhere. 

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3. Dietary ecology of Alaskan polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) through time and in response to Arctic climate change

   https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15573  

   Petherick, Ansley S. ; Reuther, Joshua D. ; Shirar, Scott J. ; Anderson, Shelby L. ; DeSantis, Larisa R. G. ( April 2021 , Global Change Biology)

   Arctic climate change poses serious threats to polar bears (Ursus maritimus) as reduced sea ice makes seal prey inaccessible and marine ecosystems undergo bottom‐up reorganization. Polar bears’ elongated skulls and reduced molar dentition, as compared to their sister species the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), are adaptations associated with hunting seals on sea ice and a soft, lipid‐rich diet of blubber and meat. With significant declines in sea ice, it is unclear if and how polar bears may be altering their diets. Clarifying polar bear dietary responses to changing climates, both today and in the past, is critical to proper conservation and management of this apex predator. This is particularly important when a dietary strategy may be maladaptive. Here, we test the hypothesis that hard‐food consumption (i.e., less preferred foods including bone), inferred from dental microwear texture analysis, increased with Arctic warming. We find that polar bears demonstrate a conserved absence of hard‐object feeding in Alaska through time (including approximately 1000 years ago), until the 21st century, consistent with a highly conserved and specialized diet of soft blubber and flesh. Notably, our results also suggest that some 21st‐century polar bears may be consuming harder foods (e.g., increased carcass utilization, terrestrial foods including garbage), despite having skulls and metabolisms poorly suited for such a diet. Prior to the 21st century, only polar bears with larger mandibles demonstrated increased hard‐object feeding, though to a much lower degree than closely related grizzly bears which regularly consume mechanically challenging foods. Polar bears, being morphologically specialized, have biomechanical constraints which may limit their ability to consume mechanically challenging diets, with dietary shifts occurring only under the most extreme scenarios. Collectively, the highly specialized diets and cranial morphology of polar bears may severely limit their ability to adapt to a warming Arctic.

    

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4. Incorporating Indigenous voices in regional climate change adaptation: opportunities and challenges in the U.S. Pacific Northwest

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03499-z  

   Dent, Lauren A. ; Donatuto, Jamie ; Campbell, Larry ; Boardman, Marnie ; Hess, Jeremy J. ; Errett, Nicole A. ( March 2023 , Climatic Change)

   Abstract As the impacts of climate change increasingly and disproportionately affect indigenous peoples, equitable approaches to regional climate change adaptation must center the voices, needs, and priorities of Indigenous communities. Although the tribal climate change principles identify actionable recommendations to address the unique needs of Indigenous peoples in the contexts of climate change adaptation efforts undertaken at the Federal level in the United States (U.S.), there has yet to be exploration of how such principles might be applied at the regional level. Through semi-structured qualitative interviews with 18 representatives from inter-Tribal organizations and non-Tribal organizations engaged in regional climate adaptation in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, this research sought to describe challenges faced by, and opportunities available to, non-Tribal entities when engaging with Tribes on regional climate adaptation initiatives. All respondents reported high levels of motivation to work with Tribes on climate adaptation and identified several perceived benefits of integrating Tribal partnerships and indigenous ways of knowing into regional climate adaptation initiatives. Respondents underscored the need for strong, trusted relationships that respect the sovereignty and priorities of Tribal nations to guide engagement. However, non-Tribal organizations’ own capacity constraints, perceived Tribal capacity constraints, and institutional cultures rooted in colonialism and structural racism were discussed as obstacles to meaningful engagement. As such, we identify an urgent need to prioritize sustained investments in both Tribal and non-Tribal actors’ partnership capacities and climate change adaptation capabilities to place Indigenous voices and needs at the forefront of regional climate change adaptation planning and implementation. 

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5. Global Connectivity of Southern Ocean Ecosystems

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.624451  

   Murphy, Eugene J. ; Johnston, Nadine M. ; Hofmann, Eileen E. ; Phillips, Richard A. ; Jackson, Jennifer A. ; Constable, Andrew J. ; Henley, Sian F. ; Melbourne-Thomas, Jessica ; Trebilco, Rowan ; Cavanagh, Rachel D. ; et al ( August 2021 , Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution)

   null (Ed.)

   Southern Ocean ecosystems are globally important. Processes in the Antarctic atmosphere, cryosphere, and the Southern Ocean directly influence global atmospheric and oceanic systems. Southern Ocean biogeochemistry has also been shown to have global importance. In contrast, ocean ecological processes are often seen as largely separate from the rest of the global system. In this paper, we consider the degree of ecological connectivity at different trophic levels, linking Southern Ocean ecosystems with the global ocean, and their importance not only for the regional ecosystem but also the wider Earth system. We also consider the human system connections, including the role of Southern Ocean ecosystems in supporting society, culture, and economy in many nations, influencing public and political views and hence policy. Rather than Southern Ocean ecosystems being defined by barriers at particular oceanic fronts, ecological changes are gradual due to cross-front exchanges involving oceanographic processes and organism movement. Millions of seabirds and hundreds of thousands of cetaceans move north out of polar waters in the austral autumn interacting in food webs across the Southern Hemisphere, and a few species cross the equator. A number of species migrate into the east and west ocean-basin boundary current and continental shelf regions of the major southern continents. Human travel in and out of the Southern Ocean region includes fisheries, tourism, and scientific vessels in all ocean sectors. These operations arise from many nations, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, and are important in local communities as well as national economic, scientific, and political activities. As a result of the extensive connectivity, future changes in Southern Ocean ecosystems will have consequences throughout the Earth system, affecting ecosystem services with socio-economic impacts throughout the world. The high level of connectivity also means that changes and policy decisions in marine ecosystems outside the Southern Ocean have consequences for ecosystems south of the Antarctic Polar Front. Knowledge of Southern Ocean ecosystems and their global connectivity is critical for interpreting current change, projecting future change impacts, and identifying integrated strategies for conserving and managing both the Southern Ocean and the broader Earth system. 

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