Human Dimensions (HARC)

Human Dimensions A clear design for investigation of the interactions and feedbacks among the human and the biophysical systems Interdisciplinary - linking social and biophysical sciences Situated in the context of global/arctic environmental change

Human Dimensions Research is Not Community participation Integration of TEK/LEK Outreach Education All involves humans All can be part of HD research but these are not research activities…..

Highest Priority Key Unknowns Ways that human activity in the Arctic affects the Arctic system. –global activity is a factor in climate change, but what effects are humans in the Arctic having on the system in which they are part. Ways that humans in the Arctic are responding to system change. –We know something about various adaptations and changes in behavior, but not nearly enough Ways that Arctic change is affecting humans outside the Arctic.

Key Questions How have and how will Arctic peoples and institutions adapt to variable environmental conditions, to fluctuating resources, and to changes in the political and economic milieu? (Adaptation) How has and how does human agency modify the present and future state of Arctic social-ecological systems? (Feedbacks) In the face of multi-dimensional global changes, how will the resilience of the Arctic system change and what policies and practices will lead to greater resilience within the pan-arctic and its subregions? (Resilience) How do changes in the arctic system relate to and impact the broader global system? (Teleconnections)

Primary goals Quantitative social indicators Time series HD data Time series interpretations of HD data Expansion of HD research beyond the local scale Model building to develop understanding of the behavior(s) of the human component of the system and to explore the implications of behavioral change on a system-wide scale

HARC Research Fills GAPS HARC research to date has helped show that human activity in the Arctic may indeed be a factor that needs to be considered. HARC research has also showed ways that humans have responded to climate change in the north.

NSF Supported Research Paleo The Kuril Biocomplexity Project: Human Vulnerability and Resilience to Subarctic Change ( Ben Fitzhugh U of Subsistence Choices, Mercury Bioaccumulation, and Ecosystem Change: A Long-term View from the Gulf of Alaska Maribeth S. Murray, U of Alaska Complex Ecosystem Interactions Over Multiple Spatial and Temporal Scales: The Biocomplexity of Sanak Island Herbert D.G. Maschner Idaho

NSF Supported Research Paleo Zooarchaeology & Human Ecodynamics in Northern Iceland and Faroe Islands (ARC/OPP) Thomas McGovern CUNY Hunter College "Warm Times, Cold Times:-Quantitative Reconstructions of Near-Shore Environments Over the Last 2000 Years in Vestfirdir, NW Iceland: Natural Changes and Human Responses (ARC/OPP) John Andrews U of Colorado Shetland Islands Climate and Settlement Project: Historical Ecology and Archaeology of Fragile Coastal Environments (ARC/OPP – SGER) Gerald Bigelow U of Maine

NSF Supported Research Human/Rangifer/Terrestrial Systems Heterogeneity and Resilience of Human-Rangifer Systems: A Circumpolar Social-Ecological Synthesis (ARC/OPP) Gary Kofinas, University of Alaska Reindeer Herding in Transition: Feedbacks Between Climate, Caribou, and Local Communities in Northwest Alaska Knut Kielland U Alaska Fire-Mediated Changes in the Arctic System: Interactions of Changing Climate and Human Activities F. Stuart Chapin U Alaska Fairbanks

NSF Supported Research Human/Coastal/Marine/Sea Ice Collaborative Research: Environmental Variability, Bowhead Whale Distributions, and Inupiat Subsistence Whaling - Linkages and Resilience of an Alaskan Coastal System  Robert Campbell University of Rhode  Wieslaw Maslowski Naval Post Graduate  Carin Ashjian Woods  Stephen Okkonen University of Alaska BE/CNH: An Integrated Investigation of Coupled Human and Sea-Ice Systems: A Comparison of Changing Environments and Their Uses in the North American Arctic  Roger Barry An Integrated Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Variability on the Alaskan North Slope Coastal Region James Maslanik

Current Research Human/Freshwater/Watershed Systems Collaborative Research: Humans and Hydrology at High Latitudes (ARC/OPP)  Daniel White U Alaska  Richard Lammers U New Dangerous Ice, Part 2 (ARC/OPP) William Schneider U Alaska Fairbanks COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Applications of Interactive Integrated Assessment and Modeling to Design Sustainable Development Strategies for Arctic Watersheds (Phase 2) (ARC/OPP)  Robert Wheelersburg  Alexey Voinov

Current Research Risk/Uncertainty/Decision Making Search, Learning and Dynamic Choice under Uncertainty: An Empirical Analysis of Alaskan Halibut Fishermen (SBS/SBE) Quinn Weninger DRU Research Community Development Proposal: Workshop on Climate, Uncertainty, and Multilateral Management of Harvested Highly-Migratory Marine Fish Stocks (OCE/GEO) Kathleen Miller Migration in the Arctic: Subsistence, Jobs, and Well- Being in Urban and Rural Communities Terry Huskey U Alaska

CR - Methods and Education Traditional Knowledge Transect: Engaging Communities in Discussions of Environmental Change through a Dog Sled Expedition Across Northeastern Alaska (ARC/OPP) Henry Huntington Eagle River Indigenous Knowledge Systems Research Colloquium (ARC/OPP) Raymond Barnhardt U of Alaska Doctoral Dissertation Research: Expanding Collaboration on Climate Change Issues: Scientific and Inupiat Eskimo Communities in Northern Alaska Ralph Keeling Investigator) Tegan Blaine (Co-PI) Circle of Knowledge on Climate, Weather and Environmental Change: A Community-based Research Project with the Koyukon Athabascan Communities along the Koyukuk River in Alaska Shannon McNeeley U of

CR – Methods and Education Collaborative Research: Investigating Ecological Change in the Nearshore Kotzebue Sound Ecosystem: Simultaneous Application of Traditional and Scientific Ecological Knowledge  Stephen Jewett U of Alaska  Jeffrey Johnson E Carolina  William Ambrose Bates Social-Ecological Resilience, Sustainability, and the Future of Remote Resource Dependent Communities Lilian Alessa U Alaska Sustainability and Stewardship in Alaska S. Craig Gerlach, U Alaska

Future Directions

Emerging Trends Derived from perusal of conference papers and posters presented in various disciplinary, interdisciplinary, regional and global contexts

Trends in Paleo HD Research Increasing inter-disciplinarity because of a focus on complex system analysis Incorporation of LEK Focus on downscale feedbacks and interactions as opposed to drivers of change Merging with other paleo research programs for development of new proxies Development of HD research programs in the Arctic and high Arctic

Policy Area Role of institutions in causing and mitigating arctic/global environmental problems Role of arctic residents in national and international arctic/global change policy development Role of the Arctic Council in managing and planning for arctic/global change (using the Antarctic Treaty System as a model)

Trends in HD Research Health Fatality rates and links to arctic/global change Changes in disease types, invasive infectious diseases, parasites etc. Links among arctic change, industrial development contaminant pathways, exposure rates, and human security Food security in the context of Arctic change (farming, agriculture, subsistence, industrial)

Development and Arctic Change Synergies among climate change, land use change, and social change Rural and urban linkages Development at the marine/terrestrial interface

Convergence of Methods Multivariate time plots to integrate qualitative data across disciplines and data derived from LK/TK Socio-ecological hotspot mapping Integrated modeling Standardization Linking to global human dimensions research agenda and research methods

What else… -Engaging with geographers and political scientists – driving forces in the global HD research community -General trends in HD research vary at the international level (i.e. policy heavy, LEK focus, more or less integrated, etc.) -Much innovative inter-disciplinary research is unfunded or funded at low levels

Funding Priorities How human activities in the Arctic affect the system. –Possibly a substantial component of change, especially locally & regionally. Local and regional-scale field work analysis and modeling and synthesis How Arctic climate change affects people. –needs to includes both people in the Arctic and beyond. some field studies (Arctic) more analysis/modeling as well as synthesis (global).