Community-Based Documentation of Ice Seals and Walrus in the Bering Strait Region

白令海峡地区冰海豹和海象的社区记录

• 批准号: 1023686
• 负责人: Julie Raymond-Yakoubian
• 金额: $ 30.14万
• 依托单位: Kawerak, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-03-15 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1023686&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Community; Based; Documentation; Ice; Seals

The ice seal and walrus populations of the Bering Sea, as well as the subsistence users who utilize them, currently face many challenges. These include loss of sea ice and the expansion of development, fisheries activities, and marine shipping in the northern Bering Sea. Concern over the future of these species is growing, but existing science cannot conclusively predict how these factors will affect ice seals and walrus or the communities that depend on them. Local knowledge of the ecology and biogeography of these species, in addition to local use patterns, may help communities and policy makers understand current and future impacts of these environmental and anthropogenic changes. This is a community based research project through Kawerak Inc., the Alaska Native regional non-profit corporation. As part of this project, Kawerak researchers will be working with local community members to implement ethnographic and GIS spatial mapping methods in order to increase our understanding of Bering Strait region Iñupiat, Central Yup'ik, and St. Lawrence Island Yupik relationships with two important subsistence resources, ice seals and walrus whose habitat is being affected by environmental change. Through mapping spatial and temporal knowledge of ice seal and walrus habitat and ecology and subsistence use area, documenting the cultural importance of hunting ice seals and walrus, as well as the challenges to subsistence ice seal and walrus hunting (as seen by hunters), the project will contribute to an increased understanding of the complexity of social-environmental dynamics in the Arctic. The project will give a voice to local analyses and solutions of these problems which will in turn inform wildlife managers and policy makers. In addition, the project will contribute to an Arctic Atlas of Important Ecological Areas (IEAs) being developed by the international conservation group Oceana, which will in turn be a tool for the region's communities.

白令海的冰海豹和海象种群以及使用它们的自给自足的使用者目前面临许多挑战。其中包括白令海北部海冰的丧失和开发、渔业活动和海运的扩大。对这些物种的未来的担忧正在加剧，但现有的科学无法最终预测这些因素将如何影响海豹和海象或依赖它们的群落。除了当地的使用模式外，当地对这些物种的生态和生物地理的了解可能有助于社区和政策制定者了解这些环境和人为变化的当前和未来影响。这是一个由阿拉斯加原住民地区非营利性公司Kawerak Inc.进行的社区研究项目。作为该项目的一部分，Kawerak的研究人员将与当地社区成员合作，实施人种学和地理信息系统空间制图方法，以增加我们对白令海峡伊尼乌皮亚特、中部尤皮克和圣劳伦斯岛尤皮克与两种重要生存资源--冰海豹和海象--的关系的了解，这些地区的栖息地正受到环境变化的影响。通过绘制冰海豹和海象栖息地以及生态和自给自足用途区域的时空知识图，记录狩猎冰海豹和海象的文化重要性，以及(猎人看到的)自给自足的冰海豹和海象狩猎面临的挑战，该项目将有助于加深对北极社会-环境动态复杂性的了解。该项目将让当地对这些问题的分析和解决方案发出声音，进而向野生动物管理者和政策制定者提供信息。此外，该项目还将为国际保护组织海洋环境保护组织正在编制的《北极重要生态区地图集》做出贡献，该地图集将成为该地区社区的一个工具。