Collaborative Research: Sustainability of critical areas for eiders and subsistence hunters in an industrializing nearshore zone

合作研究：工业化近岸地区绒鸭和自给狩猎者关键地区的可持续性

• 批准号: 1262803
• 负责人: Henry Huntington
• 金额: $ 7.87万
• 依托单位: Huntington Consulting
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1262803&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Sustainability; critical; areas

Throughout the Arctic, indigenous people are faced with difficult choices between the cash benefits of industrialization versus potential degradation of subsistence hunting. Subsistence hunting often provides a large fraction of foods, and may be more reliable in the long term than a cash economy based on nonrenewable resources. Subsistence hunting for certain species may also have cultural significance that far exceeds their dietary contribution. On the Chukchi Sea coast, pipelines connecting offshore oil wells to onshore terminals must be built across a nearshore corridor used by most marine birds and mammals that migrate to the western North American Arctic. These animals are hunted for subsistence by local Natives. During spring, these animals travel through a zone of open water that forms between landfast ice and moving pack ice. If an oil pipeline were ruptured by spring ice scour in this shallow zone, oil could probably not be removed from open water within broken ice during migration. Such an event could not only restrict the extent of viable habitat, but also eliminate local hunting areas. Thus, key habitats that are usually accessible to hunting should be avoided in pipeline placement. In this research, we will model habitat requirements and map viable prey densities for a formerly hunted but now threatened species (Spectacled Eider, SPEI) and a commonly hunted species (King Eider, KIEI) in the Chukchi nearshore zone, and determine long-term variability in the eiders? access to those areas through the ice. We will refine these maps with traditional ecological knowledge on conditions and areas where hunting for KIEI typically occurs. We will then estimate probabilities that different eider feeding areas that are accessible through the ice and conducive to hunting would be eliminated during migration by oil spills from pipelines built along four alternative routes. We will use this information to inform structured decision-making workshops we will hold in the Native community. These workshops will help create a local vision for sustainability, in terms of potential risks of different pipeline routes to subsistence and cultural values of eiders, relative to cash benefits of local construction projects.Local villagers will be involved in creating and shaping the data set, and will be the main participants in structured decision-making workshops. We will integrate our work with outreach and education programs conducted in these villages by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our project will yield important information for future evaluations and decision-making by Endangered Species and Migratory Bird Management Offices. Our modern scientific and traditional ecological data, and facilitation of community consensus-building, will expedite later impact assessments by BOEM and other agencies as oilfield development proceeds. On a hemispheric scale, the approach we develop will serve as a prototype applicable to the many such situations developing across the Arctic.

在整个北极地区，土著人民面临着艰难的选择，是工业化的现金利益，还是自给狩猎的潜在退化。 自给性狩猎往往提供很大一部分食物，从长远来看，它可能比基于不可再生资源的现金经济更可靠。 对某些物种的生存狩猎也可能具有远远超过其饮食贡献的文化意义。 在楚科奇海沿岸，连接海上威尔斯油井和陆上终端的管道必须穿过一条近岸走廊，大多数迁徙到北美北极西部的海洋鸟类和哺乳动物都使用这条走廊。这些动物被当地土著人猎杀以维持生计。 在春天，这些动物穿过一个开放的水域，形成在陆地固定冰和移动浮冰之间。 如果石油管道在这一浅水区被春季冰冲刷破裂，石油在迁移过程中可能无法从破碎的冰中的开放水域中清除。 这样的事件不仅会限制可行栖息地的范围，而且会消除当地的狩猎区。 因此，在管道布置中应避免通常可用于狩猎的关键栖息地。 在这项研究中，我们将模拟栖息地的要求和地图可行的猎物密度为以前狩猎，但现在受到威胁的物种（眼镜绒鸭，SPEI）和一个常见的狩猎物种（王绒鸭，KIEI）在楚科奇近海区，并确定长期的变化绒鸭？通过冰层进入这些地区。 我们将利用传统的生态学知识来完善这些地图，了解狩猎KIEI通常发生的条件和地区。 然后，我们将估计概率，不同的绒鸭喂养区，可通过冰和有利于狩猎将消除迁移过程中的石油泄漏管道沿沿着四个替代路线。 我们将利用这些信息为我们将在原住民社区举办的结构化决策研讨会提供信息。 这些讲习班将有助于建立一个当地的可持续性愿景，即相对于当地建设项目的现金利益，不同管道路线对绒鸭的生存和文化价值的潜在风险，当地村民将参与创建和塑造数据集，并将成为结构化决策讲习班的主要参与者。 我们将把我们的工作与美国鱼类和野生动物管理局在这些村庄开展的外展和教育项目结合起来。 我们的项目将为濒危物种和候鸟管理办公室未来的评估和决策提供重要信息。 我们的现代科学和传统生态数据，以及促进社区共识的建立，将加快BOEM和其他机构在油田开发过程中的后期影响评估。 在半球范围内，我们开发的方法将作为适用于整个北极地区许多此类情况的原型。