Subsistence Choices, Mercury Bioaccumulation,and Ecosystem Change: A Long-term View from the Gulf of Alaska

这个为期两年的跨学科合作研究项目，研究从全新世中期到现在阿拉斯加湾（GOA）的社会适应和变化因素，重点研究面对汞生物积累和海洋食物网变化的生存选择和健康之间的联系。以考古数据集为出发点，主要目标是：1)评估人类生存选择的变化是否与当地海洋生态系统的变化一致或独立；2)评估从考古动物样本中回收的汞含量所表明的生存变化对过去人类健康的影响。研究人员将探索海洋脊椎动物开发、食物网长度、海洋生产和汞生物积累之间的联系。在这个过程中，我们将对人类作为变化的推动者和人类对变化的环境推动者的反应产生新的观点。这项研究为7000年来人类海洋脊椎动物捕捞的稳定性和变化、人类生存选择以及人类对变化因素的反应提供了新的信息。配对生态毒理学和稳定同位素数据集的开发是一项创新工作，旨在将当今汞水平和海洋生态系统变化置于过去自然变异的背景下，包括海洋食物网长度可能发生的变化。这项研究将测试过去海洋资源利用的模型，并生成海洋生产力的代理历史数据，重要的是，关于人类古饮食、营养和汞暴露的历史数据。该项目将测试测量骨骼中甲基汞的方法，并将产生有关选定海洋脊椎动物体内汞含量的直接数据。综合起来，这些新的数据集和分析将使研究人员能够推断出我们可能期望在未来看到汞生物积累增加的条件。该项目通过考虑海洋资源利用随时间的变化，对理解人类行为的动态具有影响。它还对管理与现在和未来海洋物种的采购、消费和保护有关的风险和不确定性产生影响。新的专门知识和方法能够通过长期生存的角度综合评估人类/环境的相互作用。结合未来的社会影响和风险评估分析，这一时间框架对于了解和评估阿拉斯加社区的现状至关重要，因为对这些社区来说，海洋资源的利用在营养、文化和商业上都很重要。更广泛的影响该项目是将考古学、生物学和物理学方法整合到人类科学中的一个例子，并支持美国国家科学基金会（NSF）研究变化的复杂原因，包括全球和区域系统变化对人类决策的影响，以及人类社会与环境之间的相互作用。该项目是朝着预测和模拟未来情景，特别是人类对消耗海洋物种造成的实际和感知的健康风险的反应迈出的第一步，也为了解和管理海洋环境开辟了新领域。该项目的数据将有助于正在进行的州卫生倡议，包括阿拉斯加汞产妇生物监测方案。所产生的资料也可用于处理有关具有经济、文化和美学意义的海洋物种数量最近变化的管理和养护问题。这些数据将与野生动物管理者相关，他们需要制定长期计划，以确保和提高海洋生态系统的生存能力。这些数据将直接与北大西洋的现有数据进行比较，因为动物群数据库的设计是为了与类似的数据集兼容。这是朝着产生具有全球相关性的比较和可比结果迈出的一步。UAF将全球变化/气候变化和阿拉斯加土著研究作为未来的卓越中心。阿拉斯加州已将自给食品中的污染物作为优先研究领域。这项提案支持所有这些倡议。该项目符合UAF加强跨校园跨学科研究联系的战略计划目标，所有研究人员的接近将促进项目会议，提高项目的成功，以及研究生的进步。这项研究的结果将通过学生作为研究人员与机构和社区的参与传播内容，纳入UAF的可持续发展和管理计划（S&SA NSF-03-515），并通过研讨会和教学机会纳入UAF的IGERT计划。

This two-year exploratory program of collaborative interdisciplinary research on societal adaptation and agents of change from the mid-Holocene to the present in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) is focused on the links among subsistence choices and health in the face of mercury bioaccumulation and changes in the marine food web. Using archaeological datasets as a starting point, primary goals are to: 1) assess whether human subsistence choices change in concert with or are independent of local marine ecosystem changes; and 2) evaluate the impact of changes in subsistence on past human health as indicated by the levels of mercury recovered from archaeological faunal samples. The investigators will explore the connections between marine vertebrate exploitation, food web length, ocean production, and mercury bioaccumulation. In the process we will generate new perspectives on humans as agents of change and human response to environmental agents of change.Intellectual MeritThis research provides new information on stability and change in the human harvest of marine vertebrates, human subsistence choices, and human response to agents of change over 7000 years. The development of paired ecotoxicologic and stable isotope datasets is an innovative effort to place present day mercury levels and marine ecosystem changes in the context of past natural variability, including possible changes in the length of the marine food web. The research will test models of past marine resource use, and generates proxy historical data ocean productivity and importantly, on human paleodiet, nutrition, and mercury exposures. The project will test methods for measuring methylmercury in bone and will generate direct data on mercury levels in select marine vertebrates. In combination, these new datasets and analyses will enable the investigators to infer conditions under which we might expect to see increases in mercury bioaccumulation in the future. The project has implications for understanding of the dynamics of human behavior through a consideration of change over time in marine resource use. It also has implications for managing risks and uncertainties associated with the procurement, consumption, and preservation of marine species now and in the future. New expertise and approaches enable an integrated approach to assessing human/environment interaction through the lens of subsistence over the long-term. When combined with future social impact and risk assessment analysis, this temporal framework is essential for understanding and evaluating current conditions in Alaskan communities for whom use of marine resources is important, nutritionally, culturally, and commercially.Broader ImpactsThis project is an example of the integration of archaeological, biological, and physical approaches to human science and supports NSF initiatives to examine the complex causes of change, including the impact of global and regional system changes on human decision making, and the interactions between human societies and the environment. A first step towards predicting and modeling future scenarios, and especially human responses to real and perceived health risks resulting from the consumption of marine species, the project also opens frontiers for understanding and managing the marine environment. Data from the project will contribute to ongoing state health initiatives including the Alaska Mercury Maternal Biomonitoring Program. The information generated can also be used to address management and conservations concerns about recent changes in abundance of marine species of economic, cultural and aesthetic significance. The data will be relevant to wildlife managers who need to develop long-term plans to ensure and enhance the viability of the marine ecosystem. The data will be directly comparable to existing data for the North Atlantic as the faunal database is designed for compatibility with similar datasets. This is a step towards generating comparative and comparable results with global relevance. UAF has targeted global change/climate change and Alaskan Native Studies as future centers of excellence. The State of Alaska has targeted contaminants in subsistence foods as a priority research area. This proposal supports all of these initiatives. The project meets UAF strategic plan objectives forStrengthening cross-campus interdisciplinary research ties, and the proximity of all investigators will facilitate project meetings, enhance the success of the project, and graduate student progress. Results from this research will be incorporated into UAF's Sustainability and Stewardship program (S&SA NSF-03-515) via dissemination of content through student engagement as researchers with agencies and communities, and into UAF's IGERT program through seminar and teaching opportunities.