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1. ASSESSING MOOSE HUNTER DISTRIBUTION TO EXPLORE HUNTER COMPETITION

   Hasbrouck, T.R. ( August 2020 , Alces)

   null (Ed.)

   Traditional values, motivations, and expectations of seclusion by moose (Alces alces) hunters, more specifically their distributional overlap and encounters in the field, may exacerbate perceptions of competition among hunters. However, few studies have quantitatively addressed overlap in hunting activity where hunters express concern about competition. To assess spatial and temporal characteristics of competition, our objectives were to: 1) quantify temporal harvest patterns in regions with low (roadless rural) and high (roaded urban) accessibility, and 2) quantify overlap in harvest patterns of two hunter groups (local, non-local) in rural regions. We used moose harvest data (2000–2016) in Alaska to quantify and compare hunting patterns across time and space between the two hunter groups in different moose management areas. We created a relative hunter overlap index that accounted for the extent of overlap between local and non-local harvest. The timing of peak harvest was different (P < 0.01) in urban and rural regions, occurring in the beginning and middle of the hunting season, respectively. In the rural region, hunter overlap scores revealed a concentration in 20% of the area on 16–20 September, with 50% of local harvest on 33% of the area and 54% of non-local harvest on 18% of the area. We recommend specific management strategies, such as lifting the air transportation ban into inaccessible areas, to redistribute hunters and reduce overlap and concerns of competition in high-use areas. We also encourage dissemination of information about known hotspots of hunter overlap to modify hunter expectations and subsequent behavior. Our hunter overlap index should prove useful in regions where similar concerns about hunter competition, hunter satisfaction, and related management dilemmas occur. 

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2. Food Storage in Permafrost and Seasonally Frozen Ground in Chukotka and Alaska Communities

   https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic75259  

   Yoshikawa, Kenji ; Maslakov, Alexey A. ; Kraev, Gleb ; Ikuta, Hiroko ; Romanovsky, Vladimir E. ; George, J. Craig ; Klene, Anna E. ; Nyland, Kelsey E. ( June 2022 , ARCTIC)

   Food cellars, otherwise referred to as ice or meat cellars, (lednik in Russian, k’aetyran in Chukchi, siġļuaq in Iñupiaq, and siqlugaq in Yupik) are a natural form of refrigeration in permafrost or seasonally frozen ground used to preserve, age, and ferment foods harvested for subsistence, including marine mammals, birds, fish, and plants. Indigenous peoples throughout the Arctic have constructed cellars in frozen ground for millennia. This paper focuses on cellars in Russian and American coastal and island communities of the Bering Strait, the region otherwise known as Beringia. This area has a unique, culturally rich, and politically dynamic history. Many traditions associated with cellars are threatened in Chukchi communities in Russia because of the impacts of climate change, relocation, dietary changes, and industrial development. However, even with warmer temperatures, cellars still provide a means to age and ferment food stuffs following traditional methods. In cooperation with local stakeholders, we measured internal temperatures of 18 cellars in 13 communities throughout the Bering Strait region and northern Alaska. Though cellars are widely used in permafrost regions, their structure, usage, and maintenance methods differ and exhibit influences of local climates, traditions, and economic activities. Monitoring internal temperatures and recording structural descriptions of cellars is important in the face of climate change to better understand the variety and resilience of living adaptations in different cold regions. 

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3. Cyclical Migration in Alaska Native Elders and Its Impact on Elders’ Identity and Later Life Well-Being

   https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad072  

   Lewis, Jordan P. ; Kim, Steffi M. ; Asquith-Heinz, Zayla ; Thompson, Lena ; Kelley, ed., Jessica ( May 2023 , The Journals of Gerontology: Series B)

   This paper outlines the unique culturally driven cyclical migration of Alaska Native (AN) Elders, distinct from previously described migration patterns in that Elders spend extended time in more than one community. We describe this Indigenous cyclical migration of AN Elders and its influence on their identity and later life health and well-being.

   Interviews with 124 AN Elders were conducted across 5 regions of Alaska: Bristol Bay, Interior, Norton Sound, Aleutian Pribilof Islands, and Southcentral. Within this sample, 87 participants engaged in cyclical migration. Thematic analysis was employed to identify themes related to Elders’ cyclical migration between rural and urban communities and the impact on their identity and later life health and well-being.

   We identified 2 distinct patterns of Indigenous cyclical migration—Elders living primarily in rural communities migrating to urban communities and Elders living primarily in urban communities migrating to rural communities. Elders engaged in these 2 patterns of cyclical migration to maintain cultural practices, access social, and health care services to maintain their physical health and well-being, and continue their community roles contributing to their AN Elder identity.

   This study builds upon existing migration theories by introducing a cyclical pattern uniquely driven by AN identity, culture, and traditional practices. Findings illustrate how AN communities can support Elders who experience cyclical migration patterns to ensure they age successfully in both locations. Future research should explore cyclical migration patterns among other Indigenous populations with migration histories.

    

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4. Climate, landscape diversity, and food sovereignty in arid Australia: The firestick farming hypothesis

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23527  

   Bliege Bird, Rebecca ; Bird, Douglas W. ( October 2020 , American Journal of Human Biology)

   Climate change has long been recognized as a significant driver of dietary diversity and dietary quality. An often overlooked aspect of climate change are shifts in fire regimes, which have the potential to drastically affect landscape diversity, species distributions, and ultimately, human diets. Here, we investigate whether the fire regimes shaped by Indigenous Australians change landscape diversity in ways that improve dietary quality, considering both the diversity and the quantity of traditional foods in the diet.

   We use structural equation modeling to explore two causal models of dietary quality, one focused on the direct effects of climate change and resource depression, the other incorporating the dietary effects of landscape diversity, itself a product of fire‐created patchiness. We draw on a focal camp dataset covering 10 years of observations of Martu foraging income in the Western Desert of Australia.

   We find strong support for the hypothesis that fire‐created patchiness improves diet quality. Climate change (cumulative 2‐year rainfall) has only an indirect effect on dietary quality; the availability of traditional foods is mediated primarily through the landscape diversity shaped by fire.

   Our model suggests that the loss of the indigenous fire mosaic may lead to worsening availability of traditional foods, measured as both caloric intake and diet diversity. Because the effects of rainfall are mediated through landscape diversity, increased rainfall may not compensate for the recent changes in fire regimes resulting from the loss of Aboriginal fire from the landscape.

    

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5. Harvest of female moose at high density: modelling the impacts of harvest on population size and biomass yield

   https://doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00163  

   Doak, Patricia ; Carroll, Cameron J. ; Kielland, Knut ( July 2016 , Wildlife Biology)

   Management of harvested mooseAlces alcespopulations at or above ecological carry capacity risks habitat degradation, nutritional limitation, and increased population vulnerability during severe winters. Selective female harvests have the potential to curb population growth while providing hunting opportunities. Using a female‐only, stage‐structured population model parameterized from an Interior Alaska moose population, we examined numbers of harvested individuals and biomass yield associated with reducing a population from 14 500 to 10 000 individuals over 3, 5 and 8 years. We compared harvest of cow—calf pairs versus unaccompanied females. The higher potential for adult female survival compared with calf survival to impact population growth rate resulted in higher yields from cow—calf harvests. Achieving the population objective required the mean annual harvest of 889, 626 and 477 cow—calf pairs or 1161, 805 and 605 unaccompanied females, for the three harvest durations, respectively. Over a five‐year period, cow—calf harvests yielded approximately 56% more individuals and 17% greater biomass, an estimated difference of 130 metric tonnes. The two harvest scenarios resulted in similar stage distributions and population growth rates following the termination of harvest. While the cow—calf harvests can provide higher yields, they also require substantially higher hunter effort to achieve population objectives. The harvest of unaccompanied females will result in greater population reduction per individual harvested and will therefore be the preferable strategy when hunter effort is limited. In addition, the large harvest numbers necessary to achieve the modelled management goal, suggest that some moose populations may escape the range where they can be easily be controlled through female harvest, especially when harvest is limited by hunter interest or access.

    

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