Shari Gearheard

Arctic Sea Ice Extent Plummets in 2007

Arctic sea ice declined rapidly to unprecedented low extents in the summer of 2007, raising concern that the Arctic may be on the verge of a fundamental transition toward a seasonal ice cover. Arctic sea ice extent typically attains a seasonal maximum in March and minimum in September. Over the course of the modern satellite record (1979 to present), sea ice extent has declined significantly in all months, with the decline being most pronounced in September. By mid-July 2007, it was clear that a new record low would be set during the summer of 2007.

“It's Not that Simple”: A Collaborative Comparison of Sea Ice Environments, Their Uses, Observed Changes, and Adaptations in Barrow, Alaska, USA, and Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract The Arctic environment, including sea ice, is changing. The impacts of these changes to Inuit and Iñupiat ways of life vary from place to place, yet there are common themes as well. The study reported here involved an exchange of hunters, Elders, and others from Barrow, Alaska, USA, and Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada, as members of a larger research team that also included visiting scientists. Although the physical environments of Barrow and Clyde River are strikingly different, the uses of the marine environment by residents, including sea ice, had many common elements. In both locations, too, extensive changes have been observed in recent years, forcing local residents to respond in a variety of ways. Although generally in agreement or complementary to one another, scientific and indigenous knowledge of sea ice often reflect different perspectives and emphases. Making generalizations about impacts and responses is challenging and should therefore be approached with caution. Technology provides some potential assistance in adapting to changing sea ice, but by itself, it is insufficient and can sometimes have undesirable consequences. Reliable knowledge that can be applied under changing conditions is essential. Collaborative research and firsthand experience are critical to generating such new knowledge.

The role of data management in engaging communities in Arctic research: overview of the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA)

Abstract Local and traditional knowledge (LTK) was a key component of many projects in the 2007–2009 International Polar Year (IPY) and much information was amassed through maps, interviews with local experts, photographs, artwork, and other forms of documentation. Unlike conventional physical and life sciences, few options exist for those seeking data management for social, cultural, or traditional knowledge projects. This poses many problems for researchers and communities alike. The collaborative demands of the IPY data policy emphasized the need for effective and appropriate means of recording, preserving, and sharing the information collected in Arctic communities. This article describes the history and activities of the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic, a project launched during the IPY that continues to facilitate the collection, preservation, exchange, and use of local observations and knowledge. Using examples, we describe new approaches and special considerations for managing community data. We also show how data management can assist in linking LTK and various sciences and building connections between researchers and communities and across communities. Data management, if designed to serve local needs as well as broader interests, can help to facilitate new relationships between local communities and global researchers.

Bridging perspectives from remote Sensing and Inuit communities on changing Sea-ice cover in the Baffin Bay region

Abstract Passive microwave imagery indicates a decreasing trend in Arctic Summer Sea-ice extent Since 1979. The Summers of 2002–05 have exhibited particularly reduced extent and have reinforced the downward trend. Even the winter periods have now Shown decreasing trends. At the local level, Arctic residents are also noticing changes in Sea ice. In particular, indigenous elders and hunters report changes Such as earlier break-up, later freeze-up and thinner ice. The changing conditions have profound implications for Arctic-wide climate, but there is also regional variability in the extent trends. These can have important ramifications for wildlife and indigenous communities in the affected regions. Here we bring together observations from remote Sensing with observations and knowledge of Inuit who live in the Baffin Bay region. Weaving the complementary perspectives of Science and Inuit knowledge, we investigate the processes driving changes in Baffin Bay Sea-ice extent and discuss the present and potential future effects of changing Sea ice on local activities.

The Igliniit Project: Combining Inuit Knowledge and Geomatics Engineering to Develop a New Observation Tool for Hunters

This chapter provides an overview of the Igliniit project, an International Polar Year (IPY) project that took place in Clyde River, Nunavut, from 2006 to 2010. As part of the larger IPY projects, SIKU and ISIUOP, the Igliniit project brought Inuit hunters and geomatics engineering students together to design, build, and test a tool to assist hunters in documenting their observations of the environment. By combining a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, a mobile weather station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), and a digital camera, the hunters and engineering students in Igliniit co-developed and piloted a system that allows hunters to contribute to environmental research in an active way, through the regular use of their environment, documenting observations and experiences in context, as they happen. Despite hardware problems and the challenges of using such technology in Arctic winter, the data collected by hunters provide detailed, dynamic, geo-referenced information about the environment that could otherwise not be collected. With continued development, this technology could be useful in many different regions and applications for understanding the environment and human–environment relationships over time and space. The approach, of supporting local people in their own activities year-round and outfitting them with a simple but powerful tool to document their environmental observations, proves a promising method in future community-based environmental research and monitoring, with applications as well in land use planning, resource management, hazards mapping, wildlife and harvest studies, and search and rescue operations.

The Power of Multiple Perspectives: Behind the Scenes of the Siku–Inuit–Hila Project

The Siku–Inuit–Hila (Sea ice–people–weather) project presents a new approach for collaborative research in the Arctic that links Inuit and scientific knowledge. For perhaps the first time, Inuit have undertaken comparative environmental research in a formal structure: not only comparative across Inuit knowledge and science but also comparative across time and place. By involving local research team members in community knowledge exchanges, we blurred the distinctions between “researchers” and “participants,” giving each team member a variety of roles during the project, including host, visitor, teacher, and student. The exchanges were complemented by quantitative sea ice measurements taken from specially designed local monitoring stations and information gathered during regular sea ice expert group meetings held in each community. Our experiences illustrate that this approach to collaborative research can yield new insights into sea ice processes, changes, and impacts at the local and regional scales.

Staying in place during times of change in Arctic Alaska: The implications of attachment,alternatives, and buffering

The relationship between stability and change in social-ecological systems has received considerable attention in recent years, including the expectation that significant environmental changes will drive observable consequences for individuals, communities, and populations. Migration, as one example of response to adverse economic or environmental changes, has been observed in many places, including parts of the Far North. In Arctic Alaska, a relative lack of demographic or migratory response to rapid environmental and other changes has been observed. To understand why Arctic Alaska appears different, we draw on the literature on environmentally driven migration, focusing on three mechanisms that could account for the lack of response: attachment, the desire to remain in place, or the inability to relocate successfully; alternatives, ways to achieve similar outcomes through different means; and buffering, the reliance on subsidies or use of reserves to delay impacts. Each explanation has different implications for research and policy, indicating a need to further explore the relative contribution that each makes to a given situation in order to develop more effective responses locally and regionally. Given that the Arctic is on the front lines of climate change, these explanations are likely relevant to the ways changes play out in other parts of the world. Our review also underscores the importance of further attention to the details of social dynamics in climate change impacts and responses.