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ANSWERS FROM THE ICE EDGEThe consequences of climate change on life

in the Bering and Chukchi seas

Prepared by:

Margie Ann Gibson

ARCTIC NETWORKPO Box 102252

Anchorage AK 99510-2252907-272-2452 fax: 907-272-2453

[email protected]

and

Sallie B Schullinger

GREENPEACE ALASKA125 Christensen Drive, Suite 2

Anchorage AK 99510907-277-8234 fax: 907-272-6519

June 1998© 1998 Arctic Network and Greenpeace USA. Native testimonies and © artwork used by permission.

For additional information on climate change contact:

GREENPEACE USA1436 U Street NW

Washington DC 20009202-462-1177

2 Answers from the Ice Edge

Cover photo © Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace

Printed by Color Art Printing on recyled paper with no chlorine bleaching used in the recycling process.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSOur heartfelt appreciation to the people of

Savoonga, Gambell, Wales, Kotzebue, Deering,Point Hope, Point Lay and Wainwright

for their participation

&to Art Ivanoff of Maniilaq and

Mike Holloway of Alaska Friends of the Earthfor joining us in the village visits.

For helping chart our initial course, the authorsthank Patricia Cochran of the Alaska Native ScienceCommission, and Bill Keller. Within Greenpeace, SteveSawyer and Kalee Krieder provided very alert assistancethroughout. We are grateful to the crew of the ArcticSunrise and her captain, Arne Sorensen; as well as AngieOlrun, Cath Stewart, Pamela K Miller and Jeanne Pattonfor helping us with village visits.

In addition we are appreciative of help received col-lecting materials or reviewing this document from:

Vera Alexanderthe ARLIS staff

Dorothy ChildersJoel ClementMark Floegel

Carl HildMike Holloway

Kathy FrostCharlie JohnsonPaul JohnstonFlore Lekanof

Michael PedersonJohn N Schullinger

Alan SpringerJulia Triplehorn and her staffUS Fish and Wildlife Service

Gunter Weller

GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS

INTERNATIONAL UNION

Answers from the Ice Edge 3

Is there evidence of climatechange taking place in the Arc-tic? Scientists predict this iswhere the first and greatest im-pacts will occur. What do arcticpeople see? Is sea ice thinner?Is spring arriving earlier? Howare people’s lives affected? Theseare some of the many questionswe sought to answer when theGreenpeace ship Arctic Sunrisevisited eight remote communitiesin the northern Bering andChukchi seas.

We began at Savoonga onSaint Lawrence Island, and thenvisited Gambell. From SaintLawrence Island we headednorth to Wales, Deering,Kotzebue, Point Hope, Point Layand Wainwright. Members ofGreenpeace and the Alaska-based conservation group Arctic

Network held public meetings ineach village. We also recordedindividual interviews with Yup’ikand Inupiat elders, gatherers andhunters.1

During the course of our voy-age we listened to many people— from elders, sometimes speak-ing in their Native language, toyoung adults. We listened to menwho hunt marine mammals,birds and caribou. We listenedto women who harvest greensand berries from the tundra andprepare meat provided by thehunt. They spoke of manychanges they have seen in thesea and land around them. Werecorded observations of peoplewho continue to live off the landin the traditions of their ances-tors, using knowledge passeddown for hundreds of genera-tions.

This report is about changesAlaska Native peoples of thenorthern Bering and Chukchiseas observe in their surround-ings. Climate change is a gravethreat to northern ecosystemsand thus to the subsistence wayof life that is the heart of Yup’ikand Inupiat cultures.

The Arctic Sunrise

PREFACE


Each winter Arctic pack ice advances acrossthe Chukchi Sea and into one of the most pro-ductive marine ecosystems on earth — theBering Sea. With the pack ice come animalsthat depend on it for life - bowhead and belugawhales, walruses, seals and polarbears. At this interface of ice andopen water life flourishes and di-versity of species is greatest. Therichness of this marine life in turnattracts animals and people fromthe land. For thousands of yearsindigenous people of Alaska haverelied on marine resources for food,clothing and cultural traditions.

The lands bordering the Beringand Chukchi seas have an abun-dance of their own. Birds migratehere from six continents to nest oncoastal tundra. Millions of seabirdsraise their young in colonies alongthe water’s edge. Streams andcoastal spawning grounds contrib-ute to the rich fisheries of this re-gion. Caribou wander the tundra,also home to wolves, foxes and avariety of small mammals. Theseliving resources are likewise vitalto the survival of coastal people.

Climate change upsets the dynamics ofmarine and coastal ecosystems and Native cul-tures that depend on them. The consequencesof global warming are affecting the subsistenceway of life of Alaska’s Native peoples now.

INTRODUCTION

Painted skin boat at Savoonga Margie Ann Gibson


People have lived on the northwesternAlaska coast for at least 4,000 years.3 Artifactsat the oldest coastal archaeological sites showseasonal use, probably during late spring orsummer. A few hundred years before the birthof Christ, fully maritime cultures evolved.4 Theuse of kayaks and skin-covered boats calledumiaks aided in harvesting the richness of thesea. In winter, people traveled by hand-drawnsled. The abundance of walrus in particularallowed time away from subsistence activitiesso that technical and artistic skills developed.5

In another five to seven hundred years a newsubsistence pattern emerged on Saint LawrenceIsland and the adjacent Russian coast — thePunuk culture of large sea mammal hunting.They established several Bering Sea settlementsalong major marine mammal migration routes.6

New sea mammal hunting technologyspread north. Sites at Cape Prince of Wales,Cape Krusenstern, Point Hope and Point Bar-row show a dramatic change in subsistence.7

These sites on the Alaska mainland were thefocus of year round rather than seasonal har-vesting of coastal resources. The Birnirk cul-ture developed as people became progressivelymore skilled marine mammal hunters.

Thule culture was the culmination of thePunuk and Birnirk traditions. The Thule werehighly skilled hunters of the sea, especially aswhalers.8,9 Increasingly specialized tools mark

WHAT IS SUBSISTENCE?In US federal law, subsistence is the

customary and traditional use of naturallyoccurring wild resources for food, clothing,art, crafts, sharing and customary trade.To Alaska Native peoples the definition ismuch broader. Subsistence is a way of life,spirituality and connectedness. It bringsa sense of pride and well being, familystrength, community interdependence andstewardship of the earth.15 Subsistence isa basic human right.

their development.10 Large umiaks enhancedhunting efficiency.11 Hunting, towing and cut-ting up of bowhead whales depended on coop-eration. Communities and social structuresgrew resulting in major whaling communitiesat Point Barrow, Wainwright and Point Hope.12

Thule culture was distinctive for adaptabil-ity in both social groupings and technology.13

Beginning about 1000 AD this culture spreadfrom Alaska, east across the Canadian HighArctic to Greenland,14 expanding across thou-sand of miles in just a few hundred years. Fromthe Thule, historic Eskimo cultures evolved.

Russian, European and American contactbrought new cultural adaptations. Cultures

CULTURAL TRADITIONS

Keith Trexler/National Park ServiceAncient arctic house sites

“There were no libraries orcomputers in the past. The

important things that needed to bepassed down were in the stories

and songs which everyone heard.Everything was in the mind andeach person was responsible to

learn the lessons of the previousgenerations. The traditional style

of learning was watching, listening,feeling. Young people learned fromadults as well as from the animals,

and the environment.”2

Dr. Walter SoboleffDr. Walter SoboleffDr. Walter SoboleffDr. Walter SoboleffDr. Walter Soboleff


“I was taught bythe elders here andnow I’m trying to teachit to my grandkids andmy younger son here.I’m trying to tell themto pass it on to theirgrandkids, beforeI pass away.”

John KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

John Kulowiyi, Savoonga

tween people and strong expectations aboutsharing.

Hunting and gathering activities also pro-vide continuity between generations. The sub-sistence way of life is not taught from a book.Children learn from observation and practice,by going hunting with an uncle or picking ber-ries with a grandmother. The knowledge andexperience of one generation passes to the next.

The value of subsistence is much greaterthan the food provided. Hunting and gather-ing, sharing of food, and spiritual beliefs sur-rounding these activities tie families, genera-tions and communities together. These prac-tices are not the same as a trip to the grocerystore. Subsistence activities connect people totheir environment and each other. Alaska’sYup’ik and Inupiat cultures depend on thehealth of the natural world.

The experience and accumulated knowledgeof the natural environment are parts of aworldview called traditional knowledge. Itsfoundation includes thousands of years of ob-serving, testing and practice. Traditionalknowledge is holistic and spiritual, includingrelationships between people and betweenpeople and their environment.18 This way ofknowing depends on the use of Native lan-guages and encompasses many values andsubtleties that are hard to define in a Westerncontext. Traditional knowledge offers differ-ent values and perceptions that could help usbetter understand and heal our ailing planet.

whose survival depended on flexibility in aharsh arctic environment were quick to usenewer technologies useful for harvesting wildresources. Contact also had many negativeimpacts.

In 1848 an American whaler discoveredbowhead whales in the Chukchi Sea.16 Therush for profits in whale oil and baleen sentEast Coast fleets sailing to the Arctic. Whenheavy commercial harvests decimated thewhales the fleets turned to walrus hunting.Loss of these subsistence resources and dis-eases such as smallpox took their toll on Na-tive communities.

Beginning in the late 1890s the work ofAlaska missionaries and demands of school-ing brought people together into permanentvillages.17 People used traditional camps forseasonal harvesting and then returned to thevillage.

Today Alaska Native peoples live in estab-lished communities with schools, snow ma-chines, computers and other benefits of West-ern society and technology. Native languages,as well as English, are spoken. Cultural tradi-tions of harvesting and sharing natural wildresources are still central to people’s lives.There are also people of non-Native descent liv-ing in rural communities who value these tra-ditions.

Populations of arctic fish and wildlife natu-rally cycle up and down, or are only seasonallyavailable. No one hunter or family is alwayssuccessful. This creates interdependence be-

© Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace


SUBSISTENCE“The spiritual aspects of our culture

are very important in terms of how we dothings and why we do things, and arebased on knowledge passed on forthousands of years....

Most non-Natives don’t understandthe spiritual nature of Native peopleshunting. We do things a certain way.When you do things a certain way, youprovide respect to that animal, then thatanimal will give himself to you at a latertime. Also on the same token, we arealways told to give our first catch toelders, to always give food to elders.When we hunt, we think of providingthese foods for other people. All the time.And there’s no question on that.”

Roswell Lincoln Schaeffer, Sr.Roswell Lincoln Schaeffer, Sr.Roswell Lincoln Schaeffer, Sr.Roswell Lincoln Schaeffer, Sr.Roswell Lincoln Schaeffer, Sr.KotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebue

“I’ve been hunting all my life, sincethe time I was able to handle a firearm,close to 40 years now. Of course, that’sthe way we live up here. You can’t justwalk down to the local Safeway becausewe don’t have one.”

Gilbert BarrGilbert BarrGilbert BarrGilbert BarrGilbert BarrDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“I grew up with a big family and mymom taught me how to pick greens. As Igrew up I noticed it was my interest.Picking greens, and helping my mom forthe winter. My mom used to fill up fourbarrels; later in September or earlyOctober she put them in a kind of largesize seal poke for the winter. So I’ve beenpicking, ever since. But when I first hadsmall children I quit picking for a whileand let them grow up some.

...My mom taught me how to pickthem and how to pack them and how to

save them for winter.How we find good greensis to look for the big,healthy-looking, fatgreens. Especially whenthey first grow up theyare real smooth... Wepick three or fourdifferent kinds... They

are real sour. They keep in barrels formonths.”

Rose MartinRose MartinRose MartinRose MartinRose MartinSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

“I was born in Nome and I was raisedhere in Deering. I am 25. I startedhunting 12 years ago with my dad andmy brothers... I like to spring hunt forbirds and hunt sea mammals. Duringwintertime I go out and hunt caribou thatmigrate from north on down here. Thepast couple years, the caribou have beencoming down pretty close. I love fishingand I love going out camping andenjoying the land we’ve got here.”

Alvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“I’m always out there in the hills, onthe ocean, in wintertime anyway, gettingfood. If I stay home I’ll have nothing toeat.”

Gibson MotoGibson MotoGibson MotoGibson MotoGibson MotoDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“Arctic owl is a good bird, it’s goodeating too. I think they’re next best foodto a porcupine. Porcupine is a goodfood.”

Charlie Tuckfield, Sr.Charlie Tuckfield, Sr.Charlie Tuckfield, Sr.Charlie Tuckfield, Sr.Charlie Tuckfield, Sr.Point LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint Lay


WHERE ICE AND

OCEAN MEETThe interplay of Arctic pack ice with

the waters of the Bering and Chukchiseas sets the stage for a rich and dy-namic marine environment. Pack iceis home to a fascinating assemblage ofarctic life, from ice algae to polar bears.Life concentrates at the ice edge, andits productivity each spring attracts anunmatched array of birds and mam-mals. Marine mammals from temper-ate climates venture north to feed onthe seasonal abundance of arctic waters. Forthem, ice is not habitat but a physical barrier.The meeting of ice and open ocean habitats cre-ates an unmatched richness in biodiversity ofmarine mammals.

For a variety of unique arctic wildlife, iceprovides transportation, as well as a floatingplatform for resting, feeding, and producingtheir young. The maximum areal extent of packice is in April in the Bering Sea; in spring iceretreats up to 1,700 kilometers, reaching itsminimum extent in the Arctic Ocean in Sep-tember. At its maximum Arctic pack ice coverstwice the area as it does at its minimum. Itsadvance and retreat takes ice-associated ani-mals to new feeding areas.

Several types of ice provide different typesof habitat. As ocean waters freeze each fall,winds and currents drive ice toward the coast-line. Some of it anchors to shore as landfast(or shorefast) ice. New or slush ice becomespart of the pack ice. As ice ages the salt beginsto leach out. In the Arctic Ocean, pack ice last-ing more than a year becomes multi-year ice.

Second and third-year ice is progressivelyfresher, harder and thicker. In the Chukchi andfarther north, moving pack ice meets landfastice in the shear zone. Within pack ice are pond-like open water refuges called polynyas andlong, linear cracks called leads.

Walrus and ice-dwelling seals — ringed, rib-bon, bearded and spotted — use ice as a plat-form to rest, mate, and molt. Gregarious wal-rus use areas of broken pack ice in winter andneed floes thick enough to support their weight— up to 1,200 kilograms for an adult male.Walrus and the mainly solitary bearded seal,called ugruk, are bottom feeders. Both givebirth to single offspring on ice floes, as do fish-eating ribbon and spotted seals.

Ringed seals are the most northern seal, liv-ing not just in floes along the pack ice edge,but in the thick ice of the far north. They eat avariety of creatures from the sea floor up, buttheir main prey is arctic cod. Ringed seals arein turn the principal prey of polar bears. Arcticfox search the ice to clean up the polar bear’sleftovers. Ringed seals are the only seal to oc-

© Kathy Frost/Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Ribbon seal on sea ice

ECOSYSTEMS OF THE BERING

AND CHUKCHI SEAS


cupy landfast ice in winter, where their acces-sibility makes them an important resource forcoastal peoples.

Sea ice is more than a traveling platformfor wildlife; ice also supports an unusual com-munity beneath it. During winter, tiny marineplants concentrate on the bottom of the ice.This ice algae is thickest where openings orthinner ice allow more light to penetrate. Byspring it forms a thin, dense layer. These tinyplants are food for a whole epontic, or under-ice, community. Crustaceans and other smallcreatures feed on the algae and are in turn foodfor fish. A key member of this unique assem-blage is the arctic cod. With a mouth that opensforward and upward, it is well suited to its up-side down world.19 The arctic cod is food forother fish, birds, seals and beluga whales.

The open water of polynyas allows for higherproductivity. Marine mammals and birds takeadvantage of this increased life. In spring polyn-yas are oases and leads the migratory corridorsfor a great abundance of species. Countlessbirds and thousands of whales use these open-ings as they move north. Polar bears — andcoastal peoples — hunt leads and polynyas forunwary prey.

Nikita Ovsyanikov courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service

Polar bear cub with mother investigatingwalrus skull

Ice algae flourish at the edge of the packice. The “ice edge” is not a solid line of unbro-ken ice, but a zone of ice floes meeting openocean. As pack ice retreats north each spring,the luxuriant growth of ice algae under the floeshelps seed a bloom of phytoplankton (tiny freefloating plants) in the water column. Freshwater from the melting ice floats on top of denserseawater forming a layer that keeps planktonin the light. This bloom is most intense just asthe ice is breaking up.20

As the ice edge retreats over the continen-tal shelf, much of the plankton sinks down tofuel important bottom-dwelling, or benthic,communities. Benthic animals include clams,worms, amphipods (small crustaceans with aninsect-like shell) and mollusks. Their abun-dance is so high — particularly in the nutrientrich waters of the northern Bering and south-ern Chukchi seas — that gray whales migratefrom Baja California to obtain a year’s worth ofcalories, stored as fat. The benthic communityalso supports large resident populations of ma-rine mammals including bearded seals andwalrus.

Beyond the maximum extent of the packice, a bloom of phytoplankton occurs severalweeks later in open water. Zooplankton, minutefloating grazers, feed on the plankton. The richwaters of the northern Bering and southernChukchi seas provide dense summer concen-trations of zooplankton. Plankton-eatingwhales such as the bowhead, the only baleenwhale with a range restricted to icebound seas,thrive on these zooplankton.

F P OSHOOT INCAMERA


young here.In spring, leads in the pack ice along the

Chukchi coast are a migratory corridor for kingeiders and thousands of other waterfowl.21 Assea ice recedes beluga whales and spottedseals move along the coast. As ice breaks upin rivers, young salmon, arctic char and rain-bow smelt migrate to the sea. Herring spawnas ice melts along the coast. Millions of sea-birds arrive on bluffs and headlands border-ing the Bering and Chukchi seas to raise theiryoung on marine life.

After spring migration, most shorebirdsand waterfowl scatter to coastal nesting sites.Broods of shorebirds and waterfowl hatch incoastal wetlands. Moist tundra and thick wil-low shrubs along rivers are nesting sites forsongbirds. Birds nest on the first snow-freeground and hatching of young corresponds topeak insect and plant abundance.

The meeting of river and ocean waters inlagoons and river deltas form rich estuaries.Waterfowl feed in lagoon and delta waters whileshorebirds search the mudflats. Belugawhales use Kasegaluk Lagoon, which stretchesfor 200 kilometers along the Chukchi Seacoast, for molting. The warmer water and rub-bing on submerged gravel bars help thesewhite whales remove old skin.22 Spotted sealsrest on lagoon sandbars and spits.

As days grow shorter, large numbers ofmolting eiders, oldsquaw, and black brant uselagoons and barrier islands. These areas,along with bays and river mouths, are feeding

LIFE ON THE EDGE

OF THE SEA:COASTAL

ECOSYSTEMSAt the edge of the sea, rivers, bays and

estuaries provide food, shelter and accessto the rich ocean environment. Flat bar-rier islands protect long stretches of coast-line. Rivers cross rolling foothills andcoastal tundra dotted with ponds, lakes,marshes and meadows. These habitats areexcellent nesting sites. Millions of birdsfly from around the world to raise their and resting sites for concentrations of water-

fowl and shorebirds prior to and during fall mi-gration. The migration south in late Augustand September is more concentrated along thecoast than spring migration.23

Nearshore waters, estuaries, river mouthsand bays are habitat for a variety of fish. Cape-lin, a type of smelt that is food for many marinebirds and mammals, spawn along barrier is-lands.24 Bays and river mouths are importantspawning habitat for saffron cod and starryflounder.25 Chum and pink salmon, rainbowsmelt and arctic char return to rivers to spawn.Schools of feeding or spawning fish attract fish-eating beluga whales, spotted seals and birds.

COASTAL TUNDRAOn the tundra, extremes of arctic climate

present immense challenges to survival. Arc-tic plants and wildlife adapted to a short grow-ing season and cold temperatures — to the sud-den shift from winter’s frozen darkness to thesummer explosion of activity and light. Coastaltundra is a harsh environment, yet supportsan intriguing variety of species year round.Plants and resident animals take advantage ofthe energy produced in summer and store itfor the long, cold months ahead.

The bumpy terrain supports mosses, li-chens, grasses, flowers and dwarf shrubs.Tundra is dominated by the presence of per-mafrost, large areas of ground that remain fro-zen for two or more years. In Alaska, perma-

US Fish and Wildlife ServiceRed throated loon on nest


of summer’s warmth. The water content of theactive layer affects nutrients needed for plantgrowth. A variety of small rodents burrow inthe active layer of soil. Their burrowing affectsdrainage and the ability of the soil to retain heat.Foraging habits of lemmings and voles also con-trol the exchange of nutrients between the soiland vegetation.27

Snow cover plays an important and variedrole in the tundra ecosystem. It insulates bur-rowing mammals during winter and protectsplants. In spring, it is an important source ofmoisture. Hollows where snowmelt collectssupport lush meadows, providing food for manyinsects, small mammals, and birds. Meltingsnow gives rise to a network of lakes and riv-ers, home to fish such as arctic char, trout,salmon, grayling, and cisco.

Tundra plants support small mammals,such as ground squirrels and arctic hares, androdents, like lemmings and voles. These are inturn food for tundra predators such as wea-sels, arctic fox and wolverine. The magnificentgrizzly bear digs up the tundra in search ofsquirrels, but also forages on plants. The breed-ing success of birds, like the snowy owl andpomarine jaeger, depends on availability of tun-dra rodents. When populations are low, thesebirds may not breed at all.28

Coastal ecosystems of the Chukchi Sea arepart of the range of Alaska’s largest caribouherd, the Western Arctic caribou herd. Cari-bou feed on lichens and mosses in the winter,and eat leafy plants in spring and summer. Ex-posed coastalhabitats such assand spits andriver deltas offerescape from bitinginsects. Like thesmall grazers ofthe tundra, popu-lation changes incaribou affect theirpredators, the wolfand grizzly bear,and scavengerslike the raven.

Gerry Atwell/US Fish and Wildlife Service

Cotton grass is a commonplant of wet tundra

© Larry Aumiller/Alaska Department of Fish and Game

A grizzly bear with more than the usualnumber of cubs

frost up to 600 meters in depth is the result ofthousands of years of subzero temperatures.26

Permafrost restricts drainage, resulting in smallpools of surface water. In some areas marshesdevelop while in others, poor decomposition ofplants leads to peat deposits. Permafrost also

limits the depthof plant roots.

Only a thinlayer of soil re-mains active,thawing insummer and re-freezing in win-ter. The depthof this activelayer, from 0.5to 5 meters, de-pends on soilmoisture andthe penetration

© Charlie Ott courtesyAlaska Conservation Foundation

Snowshoe hare


Alaska Department of Fish and Game

The world’s leading climate scientists, in-cluding the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC), believe escalating climate ex-tremes are early warning signs of global warm-ing. The majority of living Nobel Prize winnersin the sciences are part of a group of 1,600 sci-entists from around the world sounding thealarm about projected global warming. Com-puter models used by the IPCC predict that thefirst and most severe climate change impactswill occur in polar regions, particularly the Arc-tic. Alaska’s coastal indigenous people alreadyare observing these changes. University andgovernment research reinforces their knowl-edge and understanding of arctic ecosystems.

Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation: Win-ters are warmer than they used to be.

Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Alaska meteo-rological records indicate winters averaged 2oCwarmer after 1977. According to meteorologi-cal data from Siberia, Alaska and NorthwestCanada, the annual mean temperature hasgone up 1oC per decade in about thirty years.29

This rate is consistent with climate model pre-dictions.30

Alaska coastal peoples observation: Alaska coastal peoples observation: Alaska coastal peoples observation: Alaska coastal peoples observation: Alaska coastal peoples observation: Hunt-ers notice that there is more open water andthinner sea ice.

Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Climate mod-els used by the IPCC predict that global warm-

ing will cause a large change in the extent andthickness of sea ice. Detailed records of globalsea ice extent are available from satellite databeginning in November 1978.

While the pattern of sea ice extent variesevery year, satellite data shows sea ice extentin the Bering Sea decreased 5 percent in thewinter of 1976 to 77; this reduced extent per-sists.31 Satellite data also documents that themost extreme reductions in Arctic sea ice ex-tent happened since 1990. Record lows oc-curred in 1990, 1993, and 1995.32

The area covered by Arctic sea ice declined2.8 percent each decade since the late 1970s.This decline accelerated to a rate of 4.5 percentper decade beginning in 1987.33 While Arcticpack ice is showing an overall reduction in areaand extent, the behavior of pack ice is highlycomplex — some areas actually have more ice.

Recent measurements taken in the centralArctic north of Alaska document that the up-per ocean is warmer than in previous years.While traveling on an icebreaking ship to thesite where temperatures were recorded, scien-tists observed the ice was thinner. Multi-yearice was rarely more than 1.5 meters thick; it isnormally 2 or 3 meters thick. As sea ice agessalt in it leaches out. The scientists discov-ered upper ocean water to be less salty, andbelieve this is due to melting of multi-year ice.34

Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation: Win-ter freeze up of ice is occurring later. Spring breakup of ice is earlier and faster.

Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Climate mod-els used by the IPCC predict later freeze up andearlier breakup, with less ice on rivers andlakes. Warmer water temperatures delay freezeup and thinner ice allows for an earlier andfaster break up.

EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Seals rest on sea ice


OVERALL WEATHER

CHANGES“We’ll get snow and we’ll get rain. It’s

been doing that for the last three or fouryears now. It turns into glare ice, andthen it snows again, and then it’ll meltagain... The whole area by the village wasflooded with water in the middle ofJanuary and February. The only thingsmissing were the ducks.”

Warren Roy OlannaWarren Roy OlannaWarren Roy OlannaWarren Roy OlannaWarren Roy OlannaWalesWalesWalesWalesWales

“There used to beheavy snowfall in thespring time; there used tobe three feet of slushwhere we walked andnow I don’t see itanymore. Instead of dogmushing we had dog

slushing.”Jimmie ToolieJimmie ToolieJimmie ToolieJimmie ToolieJimmie ToolieSavoonga’s eldest elderSavoonga’s eldest elderSavoonga’s eldest elderSavoonga’s eldest elderSavoonga’s eldest eldertranslated by Jamie Seppilu

“It seems to me that winters are notas cold as they used to be. Maybe that’sdue to the lack of precipitation. I’ve beeninvolved with the City Council off and onfor the last twenty or so years, and Iguess a good indication would be ourfinancial report for the public roadmaintenance that we do. Normally thatprogram was always running into the redbecause of snow removal. For the lastcouple of years – and I don’t know if thisis good or bad – we’ve been operating inthe black. It’s good for the finances of thecity, but not for hunting. Last year therewere more caribou than I’ve ever seen or

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Lead system in sea ice

Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation: Thereis less snow than in the past and the snow dis-appears earlier in the spring.

Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: Western scientific support: A recent studyof snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere forthe 18 year period 1972 to 1989 shows thatthere was generally less snow cover in yearsfollowing 1981 than in earlier years. Snow coverwas at its lowest extent during 1988 to 1989.Data taken in Barrow and Barter Island, from1935 to 1985 suggest earlier snowmelt trendsin northern Alaska. Later data show that trendcontinuing through the late 1980s.35 In 1990snow cover was at a record low in the NorthernHemisphere.36

Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation:Alaska coastal peoples observation: Thetundra is drier.

Western scientif ic support: Western scientif ic support: Western scientif ic support: Western scientif ic support: Western scientif ic support: Soil mois-ture is predicted to decrease over middle andhigh latitudes in summer. This is becausewarmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt in-crease evaporation.37 Climate models used bythe IPCC predict an increase in precipitation athigh latitudes (which may fall as snow in win-ter). In coastal and interior Alaska, precipita-tion is controlled by storm interactions withmountain ranges. This interaction may resultin large shadows where precipitation is locallydecreased. Trends indicate warmer and driersummers in Alaska’s interior.38


“The past two, three years, we haven’thad any snow. Back about four or fiveyears ago, we’d have snow banks so bigon the road here that we’d have to go upand down, like going through swells onthe ocean. Sometimes we couldn’t evenget by with a four-wheeler. But now,people just use their Honda during thewintertime. There’s no snow. On thehillside you could see the tundra and thewillows. We haven’t had any snow thepast two years.”


“The fall is later, and what I hear fromthe elders is that it’s not as cold as itused to be. Whereas before in their lifetime they had to have mukluks,39 I can goaround in tennis shoes all winter and thekids can too. And they can wear shortsto school in the middle of winter and itdoesn’t bother them.”

Hannah MendenhallHannah MendenhallHannah MendenhallHannah MendenhallHannah MendenhallKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebue

“The changes that we’ve seen theselast few years are that it’s been verywarm in the winter time. We do haveexceptions. Say, three or four years ago,we had our fall start in September, andwinter occurred September 15th. We hada real early freeze... Generally I think ourtemperatures have really warmed up.”


“It’s been pretty mild the last fewyears. We even had rain in January.Last year we hardly had snow on theground. Spring was a month early. Thisyear almost the same thing but we had alittle more snow than last year.

Benjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint Lay

heard of in my life here, but the guyscouldn’t go out hunting due to lack ofsnow. I guess it probably could be done,if you wanted to really hurt your snowmachine. But you’d have to weighwhether the cost of parts for your snowmachine would be worth the effort ofgetting the caribou while they’re thisclose to us.”


“It’s freezing up later and breaking upa lot sooner. We didn’t have much snowthis year. When we go to our camp wehave to cross these mountains. Peoplehad to pack up right away and comehome because the trail conditions werereally deteriorating — lack of snow, morebare rocks.

As far as freezing up, we hardly gotany snow until November. Usually wehave our first snowfall around the end ofSeptember. During the summer monthswe have clouds and rain and drizzle.Now there’s hardly any clouds or rain ordrizzle, there’s more sunshine. It’s a lotwarmer than before.”

Benjamin PungowiyiBenjamin PungowiyiBenjamin PungowiyiBenjamin PungowiyiBenjamin PungowiyiSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

“It seems like it’sgetting warmer. It’susually cooler here thanit is anywhere else. Itseems like it’s not as coolas it used to be...

There’s not as muchsnow. We first moved uphere in the summer of’81 and that winter therewould be drifts as highas some of the houses. It hasn’t beenlike that for a while.”

Brenda E. HallBrenda E. HallBrenda E. HallBrenda E. HallBrenda E. HallDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering


“There’s lots ofchanges in our weather.Take last fall, we wereslow getting snow. Whenpeople went up the roadthey had to go throughrivers where there’s littleice. Our ocean couldn’tform slush for a long

time. We used to have solid ice yearsago. You could go way out and hunt.Last year, we just wipe out and comeback. The ice was not very solid. Wedidn’t have really solid ice all through thewinter. There was a lot of open water lastwinter, pretty close too.”


CHANGES IN SEA ICE,FREEZE UP AND

BREAK UP“The most change I’ve

seen is how thin the ice isgetting. Year by year.This year is even more.When I was flying toNome I saw the ice, howthin it was, with moreopen leads between hereand the mainland.”


“When I was younger, we used to goout on the ice. It was real solid. But asthe years go by the ice started gettingthinner and thinner... Before we hadsnow machines we used to go abouttwenty miles out with dog teams ... butafter we got snow machines the icestarted changing a lot. It started getting

thinner and the ice started getting loose.We have shore ice here about a mile anda half to two miles out. That’s solid ice,but out beyond two miles is loose icenow. It’s always loose, all the way toNome. It used to be frozen all the way toSiberia. Solid, big, ice. Good, thick ice.

We used to get a lot of ice that camefrom up North,... but now, we hardly seeany big icebergs out there. I’m talkingabout the real clear icebergs that aren’tdirtied up with sand or dust. That wasold ice.”

John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.SavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

“The ice used to befive-six feet thick. Thelast couple of years it’sbeen four, four and a halffeet. That’s a foot, a footand a half, and that’s apretty substantialdifference...

One year we werehunting in our boats in

January. We’ve never done that before.It was the first time I could remember inmy life seeing us boating in Januarywhen the water is usually frozen.

Break up seems to come quicker.Sometimes a couple of weeks, sometimesas much as a month sooner... Freeze upwas as much as a month late.”

Stanley OxereokStanley OxereokStanley OxereokStanley OxereokStanley OxereokWalesWalesWalesWalesWales

“There is more open water duringwinter where there should be solid ice,and when there is solid ice, it’s awfullyrough, impassable...

It seems like break up is a wholemonth sooner in the last five years.When it breaks up, we get this southwind that blows the ice out and it doesn’t


come back. Normally it stays around allspring until, say mid-June, sometimesearly July. It hasn’t done that for awhile, not for a long time. It just takesoff and keeps on going...

In December sometimes, January,there’s a lot of open water. We got a lot ofbranch ice, a lot of young ice that justcomes and goes. That’s about it until itgets really cold.”


“What I’ve seen over the years is thatthere is earlier break up of the ocean,and the ice is getting much more difficultto hunt on than it used to be.

Generally speaking, there is a certainsequence of events that happened duringbreak up. At Kotzebue what we used topretty much anticipate was that duringbreak up we could generally see shorefast ice melt first, and then a little laterthe Noatak River would come out. Soonafter that was the start of the KobukLake ice coming out. For the past fewyears, something pretty muchunprecedented happened where Kobukice just literally rotted in place. So itdidn’t come out in the force that it usedto. What that means for sea mammalhunting here is that hunting patternshave had to accommodate that change.Hunting actually occurs much earlierthan before, maybe in part due toadvancing technology, and using largerboats. I can recall back years ago, in themid-70s, it was pretty much a given thatwe would have ugruk for example, clearup until the fourth of July holiday. Butfor the past few years, breakup began tooccur more rapidly and much sooner. Ithink in part since the Kobuk ice didn’tcome out people began to accommodatethat weather change. Before, going outthere prior to the Kobuk ice coming out

was a genuine risk, because it came outin force and power...

Some of the cold weather has changedsignificantly also in relation to having afairly rapid freeze come at the end ofSeptember. That’s not happeninganymore. In the area here in theimmediate vicinity of the sound, fromKotzebue on up, it’s generally lateOctober and sometimes early November.It’s sort of dragging out, seems like.”

Pete SchaefferPete SchaefferPete SchaefferPete SchaefferPete SchaefferKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebue

“The ice was so thin. We went outthere to put out some crab pots, and wefound some of the ice to be about 24inches thick, and — the main part —was about 32 inches, which is fairly thin.It’s probably 3 feet to 4 feet thick in anormal winter.”


“Within the last ten years we havebeen noticing that the ice has beengetting thinner and spring is breaking upa lot sooner. It’s not breaking up as hardas it used to. In fact, years ago when Iwas growing up the ice was sometimes 7and 8 feet thick, and now sometimes it’snot even 4 feet...

A lot of times before we would huntthrough the 4th of July; there would stillbe ice out there to hunt on. Now it’s gonebefore the first or third, fourth week inJune. You can’t go out there and find iceanymore during the 4th of July weekend.A lot of people that work used to waituntil that time to do their hunting...

Freeze up is so slow. If it does start tofreeze up and you get a layer of snowbefore it really freezes then you have tobe really careful. Because the snow


“There have been considerablechanges in the thickness of the ice. I amusually one of the last people to comeback on a snow machine. We used to beable to go riding around on the oceanuntil almost the middle of June. Thelatest I ever came back was on the 12thof June. But in the last several years, Ithink because of the thickness of ice, ittends to break up a lot earlier, at least acouple of weeks earlier. This year I hadto come back on the 25th of May, andthat’s almost three weeks earlier thanwhen I used to. The thickness of the icewas roughly 18 inches, and in the past itwas usually about 3 feet, especially alongthe shorefast ice. I’ve had a crew out testdrilling ice in the event that we needed anice road from here to Kotzebue, and onthe shorefast ice it was averagingbetween 3 and 31/2 feet thick, but thisyear it was roughly half of what it used tobe.”


“There was nolandlocked ice like thereused to be, in front of ourland claim which is 50miles from Kotzebue and40 miles from Kivalina.There was only slush ice,and it was right down tothe beach. In previousyears we’d have icebergsand ice build up right next to the shore.This year there was hardly any. Slushice is usually the fall ice, but when ithappens in January and February it’sstrange.”

Jack StalkerJack StalkerJack StalkerJack StalkerJack StalkerPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint Lay

insulates the ice and it takes a lot longerto freeze...

We used to go to my father-in-law’scamp on his birthday, October 15th.That’s his and my wife’s birthday. Weused to go up and go snow machining onthe sea ice during that time, but notanymore, because it doesn’t freeze upuntil the end of October or the first ofNovember. Sometimes in the middle ofNovember is when we start traveling andthat’s like almost a whole month laterthan we used to go fifteen or twenty yearsago.”

York MendenhallYork MendenhallYork MendenhallYork MendenhallYork MendenhallKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebue

“Three years ago wenoticed the ice startedgetting thinner, even inthe middle of winter itwas thin. We travel onsnow machines fromDeering to Kotzebue.We’d take a break andlook at the ice and itsalways thinner...

The ice broke up twoor three weeks earlier than last year.Last year it was a week earlier, but thisyear it was two or three weeks earlier.

I’ve got it written down every yearwhen we go out. Normally we go outJune 20, and we’re out there huntingugruks, but this year it was June 7 or 8or 9, fourteen days earlier than ever onaccount of the ice being too thin and theice going out.”



“About fifteen years ago, it startedgetting warmer. The snow melts faster andfaster. Even this year I was surprised how

fast the ice broke up. The break up seasonwas early. A lot of the senior captains weresaying the ice conditions weren’t really goodfor the little baby walrus and seals. Usually

the walrus sleep their way through, take afree ride and drift northeast.”


POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON

MARINE MAMMALSLess sea ice means less habitat for unique

ice-dependent wildlife. The “ice seals” — ringed,bearded, ribbon and spotted — need this eco-system for pupping, foraging, molting and rest-ing, making them especially vulnerable to itsloss.40 Walrus need ice thin enough to breakthrough so they can breathe, but thick enoughto support their weight. This ice must be overwater shallow enough that walrus can dive tothe bottom to feed. Bearded seals likewise for-age the benthic community from the convenientplatform provided by shifting sea ice. A retreatof pack ice to deep waters would be disastrousfor both these marine mammals.

Ringed seals are the only seal to regularlyuse landfast ice. They differ from other ice sealsby digging lairs in snow on top of ice for restingand pupping. Pups are born in late March andearly April in lairs on landfast and stable packice. They remain inside for several weeks, pro-tected from bitter arctic weather. An early breakup of ice or early rain when pups are in lairs

Ringed seal pup and lair© Llowy Llowry/ADFG

means fewer sur-vive. One April onBaffin Island inthe Canadian Arc-tic an unseason-able heavy raincaused birth lairs

to collapse.41 Polar bears reaped the benefitsbut in the long term events causing declines inringed seals are bad for both.

Ringed seals, and in Alaska, bearded seals,are the main prey for polar bears who also eat avariety of other marine animals. Whatever themeal, polar bears need ice as a solid surface tohunt. Polynyas and leads are predictablesources of prey. What will happen to these fea-tures in a warmer Arctic is unknown.42 Polarbears also breed and travel on ice. Earlier springbreak up, later fall freeze up, or a smaller arealextent of ice are all losses of habitat.

Many polar bears give birth to their youngin dens on land. In fall in the Chukchi andBeaufort seas pack ice is offshore. As openwater between pack ice and shore freezes, fe-males head for the coast. If freeze up of coastalwater is later and the pack ice is too far off-shore, coastal denning sites may be out ofreach.43

A grave result of warmer winters is thechance that warm weather or late winter rainwill cause the collapse of maternity dens. Col-lapse of a den near the Beaufort coast crusheda female and two newborn cubs to death.44 Likemany arctic animals, polar bears are long-livedand slow to mature. Increased death rates forreproducing adult females have serious effectson the population.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND MARINE LIFE

© Llowy Llowry/Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Walrus pushing baby


EFFECTS ON MARINE

SUBSISTENCE“What I’ve seen over the years is that

there is earlier break up of the ocean,and the ice is getting much more difficultto hunt on than it used to be.”


“It’s harder to hunt for some seamammals that can’t get on the ice. Forsome odd reason the ugruks that wehunt are further out there. There’s lots ofclean ice and there’s no ugruks or sealson it. Maybe because of the walruscoming around. Hundreds of walrus.They kill the ugruks and the seals.”


“When it’s time to hunt, we usually tryto get ready as fast as we can because weknow that the last couple years the icehas been melting pretty fast. It doesn’tmatter if it’s cold and windy, or whattemperature it is, that ice is still melting.All the elders and old folks have beensaying it’s been breaking up fast, a lotsooner than we expect.”


“It makes it hard tohunt in fall time when theice starts forming. It’skind of dangerous to beout. It’s not really sturdy.And after it freezes there’salways some open spots.Sometimes it doesn’t

freeze up until January.”Benjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokBenjamin NeakokPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint LayPoint Lay

IS IT THERE WHEN

YOU NEED IT?The edge of the Arctic pack ice is a source

of concentrated food. Multi-year ice supportsmore complex epontic communities than sea-sonal ice.48 Crustaceans at the ice edge feedseabirds and fish such as arctic cod. Arcticcod is a key species in the food web whose lifecycle depends on sea ice. This cod is impor-tant prey for beluga whales, ringed and beardedseals, marine birds and other fish. Large groupsof arctic cod gather at the ice edge and are es-pecially crucial to beluga whales; it is hard topicture the beluga population surviving on scat-tered arctic cod.49 A reduction in multi-yearice and the extent of the ice edge is a loss offeeding habitat. The high productivity of theice edge is also an early source of food for ma-rine mammals and birds. A decline in ice edgeextent may shift migratory routes or may sim-ply mean food is not available at a crucial time.

Changes in the location of the ice edge af-fect coastal environments relying on its pro-ductivity. Northern sea birds fish the ice edgeto feed young waiting in coastal rookeries.Northern peoples hunt along the ice edge to

OTHER WARMING IMPACTS ON

MARINE MAMMALSArctic marine mammals need good insula-

tion to survive their cold environment. Warmerwater could be a source of heat stress for somearctic marine mammals, especially the bowhead

whale.45 Warmerair temperaturesmay overheat sealsand walrus restingon shore.46 Globalwarming increasesthe spread of dis-ease. Higher tem-peratures may helpin the growth andspread of marinediseases and para-sites in marinemammals.47

continued on page 21continued on next page

NOAA

Bowhead and calf


feed their families. A small loss in the extent ofthe sea ice can be a tragic loss if it is too faraway to provide food.

CHANGES IN PRODUCTIVITYIn the absence of sea ice, heat from the sun

layers, or stratifies the water column keepingphytoplankton up where light penetrates. Anopen water phytoplankton bloom takes placeabout two weeks later than the ice edge bloom.As with the ice edge bloom, nutrients and lightdetermine productivity. Vertical mixing of wa-ter layers by winds and currents resupplies nu-trients to the photo active zone, increasing nu-trient availability. Strong storms accomplishmuch of this mixing. Climate models predict adecrease in storm intensities and some modelsanticipate increased cloudiness,50 which woulddecrease the amount of light. Either of thesefactors might result in a decline in productiv-ity. In the subarctic Pacific Ocean, a doublingof summer zooplankton followed winters withintense wind.51 Many fish benefited from thisincreased zooplankton, including large num-bers of juvenile salmon. Alaska salmon runshit record levels.52 A decrease in storm inten-sities may affect zooplankton productivity withimpacts throughout the ecosystem.

In 1997 unusually warm water tempera-tures in the Bering Sea caused highly strati-fied water along the coast. Normally this areawould have dense concentrations of zooplank-ton but stratification limited nutrients. Zoop-lankton, ordinarily food for short-tailed shear-waters, were absent. These birds died of star-vation.53 Warmer water temperatures andlonger growing seasons may increase growthof some types of northern plankton over oth-ers. Changes in planktonic communities mayhave effects throughout the ecosystem.

F ISHWarmer ocean water favors survival of some

fish over others with possible consequences forfish-eaters. Fish may move north or into deeperwater seeking cooler temperatures. In Wain-wright it was unusual to catch salmon until

about 1976 or 197754 when water temperaturesshifted to a warmer trend. In 1997, thousandsof fish-eating Alaska seabirds died of starva-tion. It seems that unusually warm surfacewaters drove the birds’ prey into deeper water,out of reach.55

MARINE BIRDSIn addition to changes in spring and sum-

mer productivity and food availability, climatechange may effect overwintering birds. The icefront supports large numbers of overwinteringbirds.56 Multi-year ice has more highly devel-oped epontic communities, and leads andpolynyas in the pack ice provide access to foodfor a variety of birds. The effects of a warmerArctic on under-ice communities is unknown.

Scientists are seeking information aboutwhat happens to seabirds and waterfowl in win-ter. It may be that winter storms kill birds bothdirectly and from reduced food availability.57

Sea ice is a physical barrier to the interactionof winds and water, preventing the creation ofwaves. Ice reduces the current. This can pro-tect marine birds — and mammals — from someeffects of winter storms.

US Fish and Wildlife Service

Ice protects birds from waves


“The ice went out really fast this year.I went to Kotzebue in May. Usually that’sbefore I hunt ugruks and seal, but I hadalready gotten two ugruks and twowalrus. When I went to Kotzebue, myfriends and relatives down there saidthey didn’t get a chance to hunt anyugruks and seals, because the ice left sofast with the wind and current. A lot ofthem would come down from Noatak, andNoorvik and Selawik, the outlying villagesand go to the coast to hunt out ofKotzebue, and they couldn’t sled acrossKotzebue Sound. They didn’t catch theice this time. So there are a lot of peoplewithout oil...58

We only got a couple of beluga thisyear because the ice went so fast wedidn’t get a chance to herd them into thelagoon...”


CHANGES IN MARINE FISH

AND WILDLIFE“I was at camp about

six years ago, I guess.There is a camp namedafter my last name, CampKulowiyi. One day I wentfishing with my fish netand my boys and mygrandkids and we caughtsome kind of strange fishright there. We usually get trout, rivertrout and here we see chum salmon, kingsalmon and humpbacks, humpys. That’sstrange for us. We never used to getthose around here. I don’t know whythey are coming here but it must be thewarming climate.”

John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.John Kulowiyi, Sr.SavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

“My brother-in-lawwas fishing commerciallya few years ago, and heactually got a dog fishwhich is a little shark.He was in shock, thatwas just stuff we see inthe movies. That wasquite striking to have

seen that. The other thing was a coupleof sightings of large sharks –- I’m notsure what they were, but they swamdifferently than porpoises. We haveporpoises up here, but people can tell thedifference.

We have also seen over the last fewyears different types of sea gulls showup. The other thing that’s happening isthat some of them actually stay untilNovember, which in my recollection didn’thappen before.”


“I found a wolf fish, it was the farthestnorth anyone has identified a wolf fish. Isaw one at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. The farthest north it had everbeen recorded was Nome before. I foundit washed up on the beach.”

Jim MotoJim MotoJim MotoJim MotoJim MotoDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“They’ve caught some king salmon intheir nets. The only way they can getthem is when their teeth get tangled upbecause the mesh is too small... Usuallywe just see pink salmon and silvers.”



Global warming predictions include an in-crease in storm frequency and southerly windsin the Bering Sea.59 Coastal erosion may in-crease with more waves generated by stormsand a loss of sea ice. Landfast ice also pro-vides coastlines protection from erosion.Coastal transport of sediment by currents cre-ates barrier islands, and climate change mightalter these currents. Low lying coastal habitatssuch as lagoons, barrier islands, and spits maybe lost and access to rivers altered, affectingmigratory birds, spawning fish and other ani-mals.

As ocean waters warm, they expand, andsea level will rise. This combined with meltingof glaciers and sea ice has led the IPCC to pre-dict a global sea level rise between 13 and 94centimeters by the year 2100. Low lying coastalhabitats are at risk of being inundated with seawater. Warmer sea water is more likely to per-vade coastal areas, speeding permafrost thaw-ing. As coastlines retreat and sea level risesvaluable habitats will be lost.

Many villages are located on river banks,coastal bluffs and barrier islands that provideaccess to marine resources. These locationsare already vulnerable to flooding by stormsurges and coastal erosion. On October 4,1997, a storm with 55 knot winds pummeledthe town of Shishmaref, located on a thin bar-rier island in the southern Chukchi Sea. Surg-ing waves breached a protective sea wall threat-ening nearly a dozen homes, along with severalpublic buildings including the school, theShishmaref cannery and two local grocerystores. Eleven families were evacuated to sharecramped living quarters with relatives andfriends.60

Many people notice changes in storm pat-terns along the coasts of the Bering andChukchi seas. Storms are more frequent andhave a tendency to occur more suddenly. Be-yond the ordeal of losing homes to the sea, thereare additional costs associated with increasedfrequency of storms for arctic people. Relocat-ing villages is expensive and means moving

away from traditional hunting and gatheringgrounds, directly diminishing subsistence ac-tivities.

continued next page

STORMS“Winter storms seem to be much more

violent, than what I recall as typical. Forexample, about four years ago we had awestern blizzard that was kind of like awall of weather that showed up. Between10:00 and about 10:10 it went from zeroto about 65 miles an hour in tenminutes. That was really unusual Iguess. I think the severity of the windhas picked up in the last twenty years. Ithink that sort of poses, along withthinner ice and different snow conditions,another set of circumstances weather-wise, to have to get accustomed to thanwhat we had to deal with in the past.”


“Shishmaref had a couple of stormsthis fall. Really bad ones that took outthe sea wall and nearly took somehouses. Families had to be evacuatedand houses had to be moved. I visitedShishmaref in October’97 and saw whathappened. It was bad!Some folks lost all ofmost of their seal oil andmeat that would havebeen used over thewinter.”61


CLIMATE CHANGE AND

COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS



Caribou bull

CLIMATE CHANGE

AND TUNDRAA warming climate is likely to have

a dramatic effect on the tundra andconsequently on life that relies on it.Changes in timing of nutritional plantgrowth or peak insect availability,changes in plant communities, orfewer lakes and ponds will affect anarray of resident and migratory wild-life.

SNOW AND RAIN Climate models predict an overall increase

in arctic precipitation but regional or localweather patterns can result in less precipita-tion in some areas. Snow insulates tundra, pro-tecting plants from freezing temperatures.Small tundra mammals winter in the space be-tween the ground and snow.62 Less snowfallprovides less protective cover. A lighter snowpack combined with warmer air temperaturesleads to earlier snow melt, also affecting soilmoisture. A drier tundra changes plant avail-ability. As lakes and ponds dry up waterfowlhave less habitat to raise their young and feedduring the short summer months. Greens andberries are harder for Native people to find,stunted in growth, or not available at all. Tun-dra fires may increase, destroying plant com-munities that are slow to recover.

On the other hand, more precipitation leadsto a higher level of water in the soil, altering theavailability of nutrients to plants. A deeper


snowpack providing more insulation could leadto higher soil temperatures, magnifying perma-frost thawing. It also makes it harder for cari-bou to find winter forage since they must pawthrough snow to reach the food they need. Inwinter, caribou depend on lichens, rich in car-bohydrates, to provide energy to maintain theirbody temperature.63 Additionally, a heaviersnowpack could form an impermeable layer onthe ground, trapping escaping gases fromwarming soil and affecting small mammals thatburrow there during the winter.64

Freezing rain in warmer winters can coatthe ground in ice, making it more difficult forcaribou to reach lichens. In the fall of 1996 alayer of ice coated forage for an entire winteron the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and thou-sands of reindeer died of starvation. Icingevents also kill small mammals important inthe tundra food chain by trapping carbon diox-ide under the ice.65

“There are a lot of lakes and pondsleft when the ice melts. Last month allthe lakes and ponds were dried up. Themajority of the birds that go down andlay their eggs, geese, cranes, and a lot ofducks were seen mostly in the riverbecause that’s the only place there waswater. The ponds and lakes were dryingup.”

Alvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukAlvin IyatungukDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringOldsquaw with ducklings


PERMAFROSTThawing of permafrost66 alters the ground-

water table and affects the availability of im-portant nutrients for plants. The active soil layerabove the permafrost thickens and the abilityof the soil to store heat changes. A deeper ac-tive layer allows greater drainage, leading todrier tundra.67

Arctic plants survive and grow in areaswhere soil temperatures remain just abovefreezing, and where even during summer theair temperature can drop at any time. The great-est impact to plants could be from soil warm-ing. This leads to greater depths of soil thaw-ing, deeper active soil layers and increasedavailability of nutrients favoring some plantsover others.68 Soil warming experiments atToolik Lake, Alaska over a nine year period re-sulted in a substantial decrease in cotton grassand a 90 percent increase in the amount ofdwarf-birch. At the same time there was a 30to 50 percent loss in species diversity, mostlyin lichens, mosses and grasses. Such changesin tundra vegetation do not benefit the animalcommunity of the Arctic because woody shrubslike dwarf birch are harder to digest, particu-larly for caribou.69

TIMINGIn the short season of abundance in the Arc-

tic, timing is critical. Movements of most mi-gratory wildlife evolved to take advantage ofpeak food quality and availability for raisingtheir young. Most migratory birds fly northbased on daylength cues.70 If warmer tempera-tures and advanced snow melt cause plants tomature earlier, or the abundance of insects topeak beforec h i c k shatch, theb r e e d i n gsuccess ofmigratorybirds maydecline.71

Will Troyer/US Fish and Wildlife Service

Caribou also evolved to take advantage of thebest food sources by migrating. The nutritiousplant growth of early spring is particularly cru-cial to caribou cows bearing calves.72 Cottongrass is one of the earliest flowering plants andoffers peak nutrients when it is immature, at atime when caribou are just arriving at theircalving grounds. In the spring of 1990 most ofthe cotton grass in the coastal plain of the Arc-tic National Wildlife Refuge had already matureddue to earlier snow melt and the nutritionalquality of the flowers had declined by the timecaribou cows bearing calves arrived.73

FOREST EXPANSIONMost of the Alaskan Arctic is protected from

northward migration of boreal forest by a moun-tain barrier -- the Brooks Range. This is notthe case on the Seward Peninsula, where lowtopographic relief makes it particularly suscep-tible to invasion by southern plants if the cli-mate warms enough.74 Less digestible shrubs,and later trees, will replace tundra species, dra-matically altering the regions’ ability to sup-port resident wildlife. Moose and other forestanimals will broaden their range, creating ad-ditional stress on tundra animals.


Trumpeter swan eggs

Swans on their nest


EFFECTS ON TUNDRA“Now I notice where to find good

greens is in the kind of low areas. Theones on top in the open areas are alreadyburned from the sun now. I just pickedgreens yesterday. First I looked around,I looked on the high area; they were nogood. And then I went lower, they weregood but they were just a little bit red. Iwent down to the low areas where Ithought the snow melted last. It was notgood. I thought maybe greens go by theirown time, too. The ones that are on thehigh ground wither, even before theygrow up.”

Rose MartinRose MartinRose MartinRose MartinRose MartinSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

“We’ve really been hurting for berriesthe last three years but this is the worst.We knew that was going to happenbecause the elders know that the rain isconnected to the berries, and they knowif there is no rain, the berries are going tobe poor. There’s been less and less rain.It’s easy for us to tell too because this isa desert region, the arctic desert and wedon’t have much rain to begin with.”

Gail MotoGail MotoGail MotoGail MotoGail MotoDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“The berries haven’t been good. Iknow last year there were hardly anysalmonberries, just very few... Mybrother and I went up the road to picksourdocks on Sunday and the trail isusually wet and it wasn’t wet.”

Brenda E. HallBrenda E. HallBrenda E. HallBrenda E. HallBrenda E. HallDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

LACK OF

SUMMER RAIN“There is less rain now. We used to

get a lot of rain between May, June, July,and August.”

John KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiJohn KulowiyiSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoongaSavoonga

“We’re not getting as much rain as weused to. This is probably like the secondor third rain that we’ve had since breakup. Sometimes we get a week’s worth ofrain or a couple of weeks at a stretch, butnow it’s just one or two days and it’sdone for a while and we have to wait foranother rain again. It’s changed sodramatically even our kids notice it.”

York MendenhallYork MendenhallYork MendenhallYork MendenhallYork MendenhallKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebue

“Yesterday was the first rain we had.A lot of people depend on rain for waterbecause we don’t have running water.They collect rain water for drinking.”


“It seems like it is getting a lot drier,especially this summer. Yesterday wasthe only time we’ve had any significantamount of rain. I was running around allday yesterday collecting as much rainwater as I could.”

Gilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“The tundra is drier due to lack ofrain. There are bigger cracks the furtherout you go from Deering into the hills...Some lakes are cracked and the wholelake just disappears.”



“The thing that I notice when I walkout the tundra, I notice that the tundraitself is not as spongy as it used to be.Now I can hear it crackle when I walk onit, and it’s dry. It’s real dry. Whereasbefore some places I don’t go to becausethey’re too wet, now the areas that usedto be lakes, all the plants are dried.

There used to be thousands of plantsin this one area. I wentthere to gather greens.Not one sourdock. It’sjust dry. My girlfriendand I stood there and wewere going to cry. Nosourdock. There used tobe a field. I didn’t evenbother going there thisyear. I have to go where there are gorgesor gullies, canyons where the water reallydrains into the bottom, that’s where Igather the greens now. I don’t do it ontop anymore. The higher up you go onthe hill, the drier it is.

Last year we had to really search forthe salmonberries. They weren’t out onthe tundra. What I’m hearing from theladies now is that whatever is out there isdried up, and it’s not like before whereyou had all the plants just ready for thepicking. Now you have to search.

We didn’t get blueberries this year,last year, and the year before. We’regetting fewer and fewer blueberries. Iused to be able to find blackberries inabundance, and now I have to reallysearch.”


“I notice everything is two weeksearly. The seabirds, the geese, the seagulls, even those little chickadees andsnipes. All kinds of birds – everything’searly this year.”

Stanley OxereokStanley OxereokStanley OxereokStanley OxereokStanley OxereokWalesWalesWalesWalesWales

“When I was growing up as a childhere, it was very rare to see a moose, butwe have a pretty healthy moosepopulation now as far as I know in all ofthe drainages on the Seward Peninsula.”

Gilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrGilbert S. BarrDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“A lot of moose come here thissummer. That’s kind of unusual. Thelast few years, they’ve been coming in. Inever saw moose in my life time until thelast couple of years.”


“We’ve been seeing moose that usuallydon’t frequent this area. I’ve seen lynxtracks. They usually don’t come up thisfar north, because mainly they’re huntingrabbits. I haven’t seen any rabbits, but itseems like we’ll be seeing some prettysoon.”


“We’re beginning to get insects thatare not usually of this climate. We’regetting so warm that they’re comfortablecoming up this way. One year we hadcaterpillars. I mean I was going to go upa hill, and I noticed that it seemed likethe leaves were picked or something. Iwas wondering what was going on. Rightbefore the hill, there was a gully. Andthere were thousands of caterpillars onthe bottom of that gully. We never hadthat before. Thousands of caterpillars,as far as I could see; I try to get theimprint out of my mind and say, “Okay,this isn’t happening.” Not here, not upNorth.”



“The last few years we’ve hadextremely dry summers. This year is noexception ... this is actually the first timeit’s rained this summer. I think that’s ledto some concern in Native hunters forchanges in migratory patterns. Becauseif certain weather conditions exist so gothe caribou, they follow their food.”


“This past month76 our part of thestate was unfortunate to have warmerthan normal temperatures which keptthe caribou further north. This causesgreat concern among those who huntedlocally where the caribou normally wereabundant.”

Roy MendenhallRoy MendenhallRoy MendenhallRoy MendenhallRoy MendenhallKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebueKotzebue

“The ice seems to stay open a lotlonger, most of the winter, before itfreezes solid. It goes away between hereand Kotzebue in the wintertime and it’snot as thick as it used to be. It makeseveryone leery about going out, they don’twant to fall through. We had to go over100 miles to Kotzebue by snow machineinstead of 58 miles straight across.”

Jim MotoJim MotoJim MotoJim MotoJim MotoDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

“You may have noticed as you go fromvillage to village, global warming is goingto wipe out these villages. For thisreason; you see how high we are off ofthe bay, and no place to go to. It getseven a couple of feet higher, we’re goingto be awash.”

Gail MotoGail MotoGail MotoGail MotoGail MotoDeeringDeeringDeeringDeeringDeering

Thayer/US Fish and Wildlife Service

Skin boat and seal skin float

The impacts of climate change bring withthem new concerns for people who rely soheavily on natural resources of the sea andtundra. Changes in sea ice conditions are af-fecting coastal communities. Thinner sea iceis more dangerous for hunting. In 1997, morethan 100 experienced Inupiat whalers had tobe rescued when landfast ice broke away fromthe shore near Barrow.75 Earlier break up andlater freeze up of ice reduces the amount of timeavailable for hunting and ice-fishing.

Changes in snow and rainfall can affect thevegetation available for birds and animals.Hunters worry that animals they depend onthroughout the year may not be available.Alaska coastal people also harvest a variety ofplant species from the tundra that providetastes, textures and nutrients different thananimal protein. In some coastal communitiesup to two dozen kinds of terrestrial plants roundout the diet. Stored – sometimes in seal oil –for use over the winter, these plants provideimportant nutrients year round. A change inquality or quantity of tundra plants may meanan important element of the traditional diet willbe lost.

A blanket of snow makes travel possibleacross frozen tundra. Poor snow cover on thisrough terrain is more dangerous for huntersusing snow machines increasing the risks of

continued on next page

CULTURES AND CLIMATE CHANGE


Cemetery at Point Lay

serious injuries. There is also the potential ex-pense of costly vehicle repairs after a season’sdamage.

In addition to access to wild resources, snowand ice are a surface for travel. There are noroads to these coastal communities. Peopledrive over sea ice or snow to visit friends andrelatives in other villages. Less sea ice or poorsnow cover make communities more isolated,and may even make life less fun. The commu-nity of Wainwright used to celebrate AlaskaDay77 on October 15 with snow machine raceson sea ice. For the last few years, there hasn’tbeen enough ice to hold the race.

Current changes in marine and coastal eco-systems make wild resources less available.When families cannot get traditional foods theymust fall back on expensive and over-processedstore-bought goods. These are poorer in nutri-tional content and lack cultural value.

CONCLUSIONIn an environment where poor judgment can

prove fatal, knowledge of the land, sea and iceallows arctic communities to survive. The ob-servations of arctic people today not only match

scientists’ predictions, but are first hand evi-dence that impacts of climate change are beingfelt now. Native knowledge of changes in eco-systems could prove crucial to their continuedsurvival — and our own. We have the oppor-tunity to heed the early warning signs of cli-mate change by adopting strong measures todramatically reduce the burning of fossil fuelslargely responsible for global warming.

Subsistence activities and sharing of wildresources teach generosity, cooperation, andrespect for elders. They reinforce communityresponsibility and provide self-esteem. Theseactivities connect people to their environmentand inspire respect for nature. The subsistenceway of life is learned by doing, by gatheringgreens with your grandmother or hunting withyour father.

Disrupting subsistence activities meansknowledge might not be passed down to thenext generation. Climate-caused changes insubsistence ways of life may be the greatestthreat to the continued existence of indigenouscultures.

©Daniel Beltra/Greenpeace


as the Ocean Conveyor Belt and returns to thesurface in the Indian and Pacific oceans beforemoving northwards again. This process is calledthermohaline circulation because it is drivenpartly by temperature and partly by salt con-tent.

A change in wind patterns could influencetemperature and moisture over the ocean, andhence the formation of sea ice and circulationof water in ocean currents. If there is increasedmelting of ice combined with more precipita-tion, the Arctic Ocean could become less sa-line, which would alter the mixing of waters atthe Polar Front. Such an effect could, poten-tially, shut down the Ocean Conveyor Belt,which may reduce the ability of ocean water toabsorb carbon.80

Transfer of HeatTransfer of HeatTransfer of HeatTransfer of HeatTransfer of Heat - Sea ice also governs thetransfer of heat from earth to the atmosphereby disposing of the heat surplus acquired atlower latitudes. Leads, polynyas and other sea-sonally open bodies of water in the Arctic Oceanallow for transfer of heat to the atmosphere.81

A reduction in ice cover in either extent or thick-ness could result in more heat being transferredto the atmosphere, allowing air to pick up moremoisture and become cloudier. The role ofclouds in climate change scenarios continuesto be one of uncertainty.

Thawing PermafrostThawing PermafrostThawing PermafrostThawing PermafrostThawing Permafrost - About 20 percent ofthe world’s terrestrial carbon reserves are storedaway in dead organic matter that constitutesthe active soil layer and seasonally thawed per-mafrost in the tundra and boreal forest.82 Aspermafrost thaws, some upper soils may be-come drier leading to greater decomposition oforganic matter. This will result in release ofcarbon dioxide and methane, further increas-ing the concentration of these gases in the at-mosphere. Some studies show that the tundrain Alaska has already begun this process andinstead of acting as a sink by sequestering andstoring dead organic material, now serves as amajor source of carbon.83

The Arctic’s significance regarding climatechange is twofold. Climate models consistentlypredict that because of the region’s vulnerabil-ity to climate change, impacts are expected tobe magnified two to three times more in theArctic than in other parts of the world. Theseimpacts are first detectable here, and can serveas indicators for what may happen in otherplaces. The Arctic also plays a significant andcomplex role in global atmospheric conditions;changes to arctic systems may in turn magnifyor lessen global impacts.

Albedo EffectAlbedo EffectAlbedo EffectAlbedo EffectAlbedo Effect - Snow cover is an importantfactor in determining the exchange of heat be-tween the earth and atmosphere. Snow on icehas the highest reflective property (albedo) ofany naturally occurring substance on earth; itcan reflect up to 90 percent of incoming radia-tion. By comparison, the albedo of soil or veg-etation cover reflects only 10 to 15 percent ofsolar radiation. The remainder is absorbed intothe earth’s surface.78

If snow cover accumulates later in fall anddisappears earlier in spring, the total mass ofsnow cover will be reduced. Exposed surfacesabsorb more heat, leading to higher surfacetemperatures. The sea ice albedo effect is fiveto eight times greater than that of the land al-bedo effect; an increase of open water in theArctic Ocean could lead to a warming by asmuch as 6 to 8oC at the pack ice edge due toincreased solar absorption at the ocean’s sur-face.79 The resulting temperature rise may thenbring about a further loss in ice and snow, re-inforcing the original effect.

Ocean Circulat ion -Ocean Circulat ion -Ocean Circulat ion -Ocean Circulat ion -Ocean Circulat ion - The Arctic Ocean driveshemispheric circulation by cooling warmer saltywaters of the North Atlantic at the Polar Frontnear Greenland, Iceland and the Labrador Sea.These waters become denser and sink to thelower layers of the ocean. Each winter severalmillion cubic kilometers of water sink and be-gin moving slowly south along the bottom ofthe Atlantic towards Antarctica. The cooled wa-ter eventually becomes part of what is known

Addendum

THE ARCTIC AND GLOBAL CLIMATE


17 Anderson, DA. 1984.

18 Rural Alaska Community Action Program. 1994.

ECOSYSTEMS OF THE BERING

AND CHUKCHI SEAS19 Alexander, V and Chapman, T. 1981. The Role ofEpontic Algal Communities in Bering Sea Ice. In: Hood,DW and Calder, JA, eds. The eastern Bering Sea Shelf:Oceanography and resources. Vol. 2. Seattle: Universityof Washington Press. 773-780.

20 Niebauer NJ, Alexander, V and Cooney, RT. 1981.Primary Production at the Eastern Bering Sea Ice Edge:The Physical and Biological Regimes. In: Hood, DW andCalder, JA, eds. The eastern Bering Sea Shelf: Oceanog-raphy and resources. Vol. 2. Seattle: University ofWashington Press. 763-772.

21 Minerals Management Service. 1990. Chukchi Sea Oil& Gas Lease Sale 126 Draft Environmental ImpactStatement. Volume 1. U.S. Department of the Interior.

22 Johnson, SR, Frost, KJ, and Lowry, LF. 1992. Use ofKasegaluk Lagoon, Chukchi Sea, Alaska, by Marine Birdsand Mammals. Minerals Management Service.

23 Minerals Management Service. 1990.

24 Minerals Management Service. 1990.

25 Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 1986. AlaskaHabitat Management Guide Arctic Region. Volume I: LifeHistories and Habitat Requirements of Fish and Wildlife.

26 Weller, G. 1992. Arctic. Encyclopedia of Earth SystemsScience. 1:106.

27 Batzli, GO. 1975. The role of small mammals in arcticecosystems. In: Golley, F, Petrusewicz, K and Ryszkowski,L, eds. Small Mammals: Their Productivity and PopulationDynamics. Cambridge University Press. 243-268.

28 Batzli, GO. 1975.

EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE29 Nicholls, N, Gurza GV, Jorsel, J, et al. 1995. Observedclimate vulnerability and change. In: Houghton, JT,Meira Fillo, LG, Callander, BA, et al. eds. Climate Change1998. The Science of Climate Change. The Contributionof WG1 to the 2nd Assessment Report of the IPCC.Cambridge University Press. 133-192.

30 Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research.1998. Implications of Global Change in Alaska and theBering Sea Region. University of Alaska Fairbanks. 151p.

31 Center for Global Change and Arctic System Research.1998.

REFERENCES AND

ENDNOTES1 Each individual had the opportunity to review a writtentranscript from their interview prior to its use in thisdocument. Written transcripts were produced fromstatements recorded on audio tape in July, 1997.

CULTURAL TRADITIONS2 Rural Alaska Community Action Program. 1994. AlaskaNative Traditional Knowledge and Ways of KnowingWorkshop. Rural Alaska Community Action Program.

3 Anderson DA. 1984. Prehistory of North Alaska. In:Damas, D, ed. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol.5. Arctic. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 80-93.

4 Anderson DA. 1984.

5 Chance, Norman A. 1990. The Inupiat and ArcticAlaska: An Ethnography of Development. Case Studiesin Cultural Anthropology. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart andWinston. 241 p.

6 Ackerman, RE. 1984. Prehistory of the Asian EskimoZone. In: Damas, D, ed. Handbook of North AmericanIndians. Vol 5. Arctic. Washington, DC: SmithsonianInstitution. 106-118.


8 Chance, Norman A. 1990.

9 Stoker, SW and Krupnik, II. 1993. Subsistence Whal-ing. In: Burns, JJ, Montague, JJ and Cowles, CJ, eds.The Bowhead Whale. The Society for Marine Mammalogy.Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press, Inc. 787 p.




13 Langdon, SJ. 1995. Increments, ranges and thresh-olds: Human population responses to climate change innorthern Alaska. In: Peterson, DL and Johnson, DR, eds.Human Ecology and Climate Change: People and Re-sources in the Far North. Washington, D.C., Taylor &Francis. 139-154.

14 McGhee, R. 1984. Thule Prehistory of Canada. In:Damas, D, ed. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol5. Arctic. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 369-376.

15 Rural Alaska Community Action Program. 1994.



32 Maslanik, JA, Serreze, MC and Barry RG. 1996. Recentdecreases in Arctic summer ice cover and linkages toatmospheric circulation anomalies. Geophysical ResearchLetters 23(13): 1677-1680.

33 Johannessen, OM, Miles, M and Bjorgo, E. 1995. TheArctic’s shrinking sea ice. Nature 376: 126-127.

34 McPhee, MG, Stanton, TP, Morison, JH and Martinson,DG. 1997. Freshening of the Upper Ocean in the CentralArctic: Is Perennial Sea Ice Disappearing? <http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/about/about.html

35 Foster, JL 1989. The significance of the date of snowdisappearance on the arctic tundra as a possible indicatorof climate change. Arctic and Alpine Research 21(1): 60-70.

36 Serreze, MC, Maslanik, JA, Key, JR, Kikaly, RF andRobinson, DA. 1995. Diagnosis of the record minimumin arctic sea ice area during 1990 and associated snowcover extremes. Geophysical Research Letters 22(16):2183-2186.

37 Rowntree, P. 1995. Global and regional patterns ofclimate change: recent predictions for the arctic. In:Oechel, WC et al., eds. Global Climate Change and ArcticTerrestrial Ecosystems. Ecological Studies 124. NewYork: Springer-Verlag. 83-109.

38 Anchorage Daily News. April 11, 1998. Professor:Warming jeopardizes Interior’s white spruces.

The article reports on the findings of University ofAlaska professor Glenn Juday, speaking at a forestryworkshop.

39 Mukluks are traditional boots made of skin and fur.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND MARINE LIFE40 Tynan, CT and DB DeMaster. 1997. Observations andPredictions of Arctic Climate Change: Potential Effects onMarine Mammals. Arctic 50:308-322.

41 Stirling, I and Andrew Derocher A. 1993. PossibleImpacts of Climate Warming on Polar Bears. Arctic46:240-245.

42 Tynan, CT and DB DeMaster. 1997.

43 Stirling, I and Andrew Derocher A. 1993.

44 Clarkson PL and Irish D. 1991. Den collapse killsfemale polar bear and two newborn cubs. Arctic 44:83-84.

45 International Whaling Commission. 1997. Report of theIWC Workshop on Climate Change and Cetaceans. Reportof the International Whaling Commission. 27 p.

46 Ono, KA. Effects of climate change on marine mam-mals in the Far North. In: Peterson, DL and Johnson, DR,eds. Human Ecology and Climate Change: People andResources in the Far North. Washington, D.C., Taylor &Francis. 105-121.

47 IWC. 1997.

48 Alexander, Vera. Personal communication.

49 Tynan, CT and DB DeMaster. 1997.

50 US GLOBEC. 1996. Report on Climate Change andCarrying Capacity of the North Pacific Ecosystem. USGLOBEC. <www.usglobec.berkeley.edu/usglobec/reports/cccc/cccc.content.html.>

51 Brodeur and Ware. 1992. Long-term variability inzooplankton biomass in the subarctic Pacific Ocean.Fisheries Oceanography 1(1): 32-38.

52 BESIS Project Office. 1997. The Impacts of GlobalClimate Change in the Bering Sea Region: An AssessmentConducted by the International Arctic Science Committeeunder its Bering Sea Impact Study (BESIS). Fairbanks:University of Alaska Fairbanks. 40 p.

53 Mendenhall, VM. 1997. Preliminary Report on the1997 Alaska Seabird Die-Off. US Fish and WildlifeService unpublished report.

54 Luton, HH. 1985. Effects of Renewable ResourceHarvest Disruptions on Socioeconomic and SocioculturalSystems: Chukchi Sea. Technical Report 91. MineralsManagement Service.

55 Mendenhall, VM. 1997.

56 Divoky, GJ. 1981. Birds and the Ice-edge Ecosystem inthe Bering Sea. In: Hood, DW and Calder, JA, eds. Theeastern Bering Sea Shelf: Oceanography and Resources.Vol. 2. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 799-804.


CLIMATE CHANGE AND

COASTAL ECOSYSTEMS58 US GLOBEC. 1996.

59 Oil here refers to seal oil, an important part of theNative diet.

60 Anchorage Daily News. October 5, 1997. Storm battersvillage: Families forced out in Shishmaref

61 Warren Roy Olanna submitted written comments inNovember, 1997 as additions to his original interview.


63 Gunn, A. 1995. Responses of ungulates to globalclimate change. In: Peterson, DL and Johnson, DR, eds.Human Ecology and Climate Change: People and Re-sources of the Far North. Washington, D.C. Taylor andFrancis. 98-115.

64 Gunn, A. 1995.



66 The two major categories of permafrost are continuouspermafrost and discontinuous permafrost. This region isunderlain by continuous permafrost. In addition tothawing, the total global area of permafrost is expected toshrink by 16 percent due to global warming.


68 Hobbie, JE, Peterson, BJ, Shaver, RJ and O’Brien, WJ.1990. The Toolik Lake Project: Terrestrial and FreshwaterResearch on Change in the Arctic. In: Weller, G, Wilson,CL and Severin, BAB, eds. International Conference onthe Role of the Polar Regions in Global Change: Proceed-ings of a Conference. Geophysical Institute; Center forGlobal Change and Arctic System Research, University ofFairbanks. 378-383.


70 Boyd, H and Diamond, A. 1994. Influences of Climateon Arctic Migratory Birds. In: Riewe, R and Oakes, JE,eds. Biological Implications of Global Change: NorthernPerspectives. Association of Canadian Universities forNorthern Studies; Canadian Circumpolar Institute;Environmental Research Series, Occasional Publication38. 67-75.





CULTURES AND CLIMATE CHANGE75 Anchorage Daily News. May 19, 1997. Rescuers lift142 whalers off ice: Floes break off, start drifting duringspring hunt in Chukchi Sea.

76 Roy Mendenhall, husband of Hannah, missed ourinterviews in Kotzebue due to a medical visit with hismother. This observation is from a letter we receiveddated October 28, 1997.

77 Alaska Day commemorates the transfer of Alaska fromRussia to the United States.

78 Ferguson, S. 1995. Potential climate change innorthern North America. In: Peterson, DL and Johnson,DR eds. Human Ecology and Climate Change: People andResources in the Far North. Washington, D.C.: Taylor &Francis. 15-30.

79 Ferguson, S. 1995.

80 Arctic Pollution Issues: A State of the Arctic Environ-ment Report. 1997. Arctic Monitoring and AssessmentProgramme. Oslo. 188 p.

81 Aagaard, K and Carmack, EC. 1994. The arctic oceanand climate: a perspective. In: The Polar Oceans andTheir Role in Shaping the Global Environment. Geophysi-cal Monograph 85. 5-20.

82 Foster, JL. 1989.

83 Oechel, WC. 1990. The effects of climatic change andelevated CO2 on tundra ecosystems and requirements formonitoring unmanaged ecosystems. In: Boer, MM and DeGroot, RR, eds. Landscape-Ecological Design of ClimateChange. Amsterdam: IOS Press.

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