Community-driven Climate Change Research in Rural Alaska

Changes in climate are resulting in disproportionate effects in northern latitudes, necessitating adaptation by societies in this region that depend on natural resources for subsistence. Rural communities in Interior Alaska... [ view full abstract ]

Changes in climate are resulting in disproportionate effects in northern latitudes, necessitating adaptation by societies in this region that depend on natural resources for subsistence. Rural communities in Interior Alaska rely heavily on such resources, and have noticed landscape-level changes associated with climate change that are influencing travel networks. Environmental disturbances associated with climate change, such as shifts in fire regime, hydrologic changes affecting waterways, thawing of permafrost, extreme weather events, and unstable snow and ice conditions, have been qualitatively associated with altered accessibility of subsistence resources. Our research objective was to quantify the impact of disturbances driven by climate change on access to ecosystem services in Interior Alaska. We are collaborating with nine rural boreal Alaskan communities to document disturbances directly impacting access to subsistence resources. Geotagged photos of disturbances encountered while community members are engaged in resource gathering activities are being coupled with the photographer’s interpretation of the impact of the disturbance on their travel, as well as traditional ecological knowledge on the history of identified disturbances in their subsistence harvest areas. We identified eight general categories of climatic change influencing access to resources by rural residents: ice and snow conditions (40%), hydrological changes including erosion (35%), changes in shoulder season length (14%), weather anomalies (4%), phenological changes (3%), thermokarst (2%), fire (1%), and undetermined (3%). This information was combined with ecological assessments of disturbance sites to quantify the mechanisms behind changes in biophysical characteristics of disturbance locations. Concurrently, remote sensing using high-resolution NASA satellite imagery will help illustrate patterns of occurrence of environmental changes through time. Through combining traditional ecological knowledge and scientific analysis, we characterized the impact of climate change on travel networks used for subsistence resource harvest across the study region and provide information that collaborating communities can use to optimize community resilience and self-reliance. These data are being used by agencies and local communities to foster adaptation to a rapidly changing climate.