Charting Arctic and Global Interconnections: Workshops on Physical, Digital, and Social Infrastructures

北极生物物理和气候系统与全球进程深度交织在一起，因此北极地区的戏剧性变化可能会在其他地方感受到。例如，北极的变化可能会引发北极以外的影响，包括热带森林变成稀树草原，季风系统减弱，珊瑚礁变得以藻类为主，所有这些都将对世界各地的人类产生广泛的后果。关于北极不断变化的环境与世界各地的社会生态系统之间的相互联系，人们知之甚少。北极体制变化对生态系统和文化系统的影响多种多样但不均衡，突显出需要进行研究，以更好地了解北极与全球的这些相互联系。该项目召集了科学家和研究人员参加两个讲习班，根据北极正在发生的快速变化，讨论北极的变化可能如何影响全球环境中的人类福祉。了解北极和全球互联使我们对网络化的环境影响和各种基础设施有了新的理解，通过这些基础设施生产和流通北极的资源和表现形式。因此，这项研究促进了对北极快速变化的环境、社会和文化系统与世界其他地区和网络之间的联系的系统层面的理解。学者们被邀请考虑从环境、基础设施和社会维度来研究这种相互联系的理论和方法。讲习班强调有形基础设施，特别是能源基础设施和数字基础设施在形成环境变化知识和调解北极内外对这种变化的社会适应方面日益复杂。一个成果将是一个创新的研究项目，它响应北极社会科学计划和导航新北极大想法的研究重点，涉及北极变化系统和全球背景的相互联系。一份题为《北极跨界》的报告将由与会者撰写并向公众公布。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Arctic biophysical and climate systems are deeply intertwined with global processes, so dramatic changes in the Arctic region are likely to be felt elsewhere. For example, Arctic shifts may trigger impacts outside of the Arctic including tropical forests turning to savannahs, monsoon systems weakening, and coral reefs becoming dominated by algae, all of which will have extensive consequences for humans across the world. Limited knowledge exists about the interconnections between the Arctic’s changing environment and socioecological systems across the world. The diverse but uneven effects of Arctic regime shifts on ecosystems and cultural systems highlights the need for research to better understand these Arctic-global interconnections. This project gathers scientists and researchers for two workshops to address how transformations in the Arctic may affect human well-being in global environments, in light of the rapid changes undergoing in the Arctic. Understanding the Arctic and global interconnections opens up new understandings of networked environmental effects and the various infrastructures through which its resources and representations are produced and circulated. As such, this research advances systems-level understanding of links between the Arctic’s rapidly changing environmental, social, and cultural systems with other regions and networks across the world. Scholars are invited to consider theory and methods for studying such interconnections through environmental, infrastructural, and social dimensions. The workshops emphasize the increasing complexity of physical infrastructures, especially energy infrastructures, and digital infrastructures in shaping knowledge of environmental transformation and mediating social adaptation to such change both within and beyond the Arctic. One outcome will be an innovative research program that responds to the research priorities of the Arctic Social Science Program and the Navigating the New Arctic Big Idea about interconnections of Arctic changing systems and global contexts. A report titled “The Translocal Arctic” will be generated by conference participants and made publicly available.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.