Doctoral Dissertation Award: Human Adaptation To Environmental Variability

人们对海洋哺乳动物物种及其人类捕食者对环境变化的敏感性知之甚少。今天，阿拉斯加西北部海岸的伊纳皮亚克人像几千年来一样，很大一部分生计依赖于海洋哺乳动物的狩猎，但目前还不确定海洋生态系统中观察到的和预期的变化可能会如何影响未来的粮食安全。考古学在这个问题上提供了独特的视角，因为它可以考虑很长一段时间内的人类活动，并调查过去的变化如何影响海洋哺乳动物及其人类猎人。这项研究将研究北极过去2000年的环境变化是否以及如何影响海洋哺乳动物，进而影响人类的狩猎模式。该项目将根据考古遗址的动物骨骼遗骸，比较海洋条件变化及其时间与人类饮食变化的证据。这项研究还将提供长期基线数据，使人们能够更广泛地了解北极的海洋生态动态。这项研究的结果将被纳入国家公园管理局的公共媒体和与阿拉斯加西北部学校共享的课程中。狩猎-采集者通常专注于捕获与能源消耗相比提供最高能源回报的资源。阿拉斯加西北部人的饮食在过去两千年里发生了变化，但目前尚不清楚这些变化是否与海洋哺乳动物的健康有关，而海洋哺乳动物是当代社会所依赖的。预计海洋环境变化带来的海洋哺乳动物健康的变化应该会推动这些变化。为了评估这一说法，联合PI将识别和统计动物遗骸，以评估研究期间人类饮食的变化。在同一时期，将通过测量考古海洋哺乳动物骨骼中存在的碳和氮的同位素来重建海洋环境。现有的放射性碳年代学将在需要时加以补充，以确保严格控制被分析样品的年龄。通过比较人类饮食偏好变化的时间和海洋环境的变化，这项研究将评估海洋健康对阿拉斯加沿海居民饮食的影响。这项研究的结果将为研究当前环境变化及其对依赖海洋哺乳动物狩猎的社区的影响提供时间深度和更广泛的背景。

Little is known about the sensitivity of marine mammal species and their human predators to environmental changes. Iñupiaq people of the northwest Alaskan coast today rely on marine mammal hunting for a large portion of their subsistence as they have for millennia, but it is uncertain how observed and expected changes in the marine ecosystem might affect future food security. Archaeology is uniquely situated to provide perspective on this problem because it can consider human activity over long periods of time, and investigate how past changes affected marine mammals and their human hunters. This research will examine if and how environmental variability in the Arctic over the past 2,000 years affected marine mammals that in turn influenced human hunting patterns. This project will compare evidence for changes in marine conditions and their timing to variation in human diet based on the remains of animal bones from archaeological sites. This research will also contribute long-term baseline data enabling broader understanding of marine ecological dynamics in the Arctic. Results of the study will be incorporated into National Park Service public media and curriculum that is shared with northwest Alaska schools. Hunter-gatherers generally focus on capturing resources that provide the highest energy return compared to energy expended. The diet of northwest Alaskan peoples has varied over the past two millennia, but it is unclear if these shifts are in any way linked to the health of marine mammals, on which contemporary communities rely. It is expected that variations in marine mammal health, brought about by changes in the marine environment, should drive these shifts. To evaluate this claim, the co-PI will identify and tally animal remains to asses changes in human diet over the study period. The marine environment will be reconstructed by measuring isotopes of carbon and nitrogen present in archaeological marine mammal bones throughout the same period. The analysis is complemented by an existing radiocarbon chronology that will be augmented where needed to ensure tight control over the ages of analyzed samples. By comparing the timing of changes in human dietary preference to changes in the marine environment, this study will assess the influence of marine health on the diets of coastal Alaskans. Results of this research will provide time-depth and broader context to studies of current environmental changes and their impact on communities reliant on marine mammal hunting.