DISES: Environmental tipping points of cultural identity extinction in integrated human-ecological systems represented by small fishing nations

小规模渔业是对全球粮食安全至关重要的综合社会环境系统。例如，全球有6 000多名土著居民依靠海洋渔业为生，其中包括美国的许多社区。全球污染使海洋资源和人类健康退化，导致人类与生态系统脱节，文化遗产丧失。本项目将调查一种假设，即由于未能适当考虑污染物排放对文化的影响，社会高估了污染物排放的可接受水平。这项分析将包括对食物网中有毒物质积累的实地研究、人类接触研究以及人类学研究，这些研究涉及在面临潜在污染食物来源威胁时的风险偏好和选择。这项研究是基于法罗群岛，北大西洋渔业社区，一直是一个传统的捕鲸社会超过500年。它将为全球监管工作提供信息，以减少对环境的污染物排放，并为一名博士后，一名研究生和几名本科生研究助理提供公共政策和人文地理，自然科学和公共卫生方面的跨学科培训。双向社区研究战略将用于通过在项目开始和结束时举办讲习班与法罗群岛人接触，许多法罗群岛合作者将持续参与。小型渔业是对许多社区的粮食安全至关重要的综合社会环境系统。人为污染物降低了文化关键物种的健康和质量，这可能使人类和生态系统脱钩，导致文化遗产的丧失，并最终导致文化临界点。这项研究的首要假设是，由于未能考虑到污染物排放对文化的影响，社会高估了污染物排放的可接受水平。研究人员将构建一个综合系统建模框架，以传统捕鲸社会北大西洋的法罗群岛为案例研究，分析全球污染物排放对渔业社区健康和文化的动态影响。他们将模拟全球环境汞（Hg），多氯联苯（PCBs），全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS），对法罗群岛的风险偏好和消费行为进行调查，并评估污染释放的跨尺度治理，以回答以下问题：1）污染物释放，领航鲸组织趋势和法罗群岛暴露之间的关系是什么？2)健康保护如何影响捕鲸活动、饮食选择和风险认知？3)如何将受海洋污染影响的渔业社区文化退化的可能性纳入国际公约？和4）什么程度的全球污染排放可以防止渔业社区的文化退化？法罗群岛的领航鲸和人类接触的时间趋势将使人们深入了解人类系统与生物接触的耦合，这将促进“一个健康”社区的理解。通过分析高水平污染物暴露的风险承受能力，或超出建议的基于健康的指导方针的海鲜消费，将开发出表征渔业活动文化和社会价值的新方法。该奖项的共同资助由NSF十大创意之一的新北极导航（NNA）计划提供。NNA支持应对快速变化的北极地区科学挑战的项目，增强新的研究伙伴关系，使下一代北极研究人员多样化，加强正规和非正规教育的努力，并酌情整合知识的共同生产。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Small-scale fisheries represent integrated socio-environmental systems that are essential for global food security. For example, more than 6000 indigenous populations globally rely on marine fisheries for subsistence, including many communities in the United States. Global pollution degrades marine resources and human health, resulting in a disconnect between the human and ecological system and loss of cultural heritage. This project will investigate the hypothesis that acceptable levels of pollutant releases have been overestimated by society due to a failure to properly account for their impacts on culture. This analysis will include field research on toxicant accumulation in food webs, human exposure studies, and anthropological research on risk preferences and choices when faced with the threat of potentially polluted food sources. This research is based in the Faroe Islands, a North Atlantic fishing community which has been a traditional whaling society for more than 500 years. It will inform global regulatory efforts to reduce pollutant releases to the environment and provide interdisciplinary training in public policy and human geography, natural science, and public health for one postdoc, a graduate student, and several undergraduate research assistants. Bidirectional community-based research strategies will be used to engage with the Faroese through workshops at the beginning and end of the project and with ongoing participation of many Faroese collaborators. Small-scale fisheries are integrated socio-environmental systems essential for the food security of many communities. Anthropogenic pollutants degrade the health and quality of cultural keystone species, which can decouple the human and ecological system, resulting in loss of cultural heritage and eventually, leading to a cultural tipping point. The overarching hypothesis of this study is that acceptable levels of pollutant releases have been overestimated by society due to a failure to account for their impacts on culture. The investigators will construct an integrated systems-modeling framework, using the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic, a traditional whaling society, as a case study to analyze the dynamic impacts of global pollutant release on the health and culture of fishing communities. They will model global environmental mercury (Hg), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), conduct surveys of risk preferences and consumption behavior among the Faroese, and assess cross-scale governance of pollution release to answer the following: 1) What is the relationship between pollutant releases, pilot whale tissue trends, and Faroese exposures? 2) How have health advisories affected whaling activity, dietary choices and risk perception? 3) How can the potential for cultural degradation of fishing communities impacted by ocean pollution be incorporated into international conventions? and 4) What level of global pollution releases could prevent cultural degradation in fishing communities? Temporal trends in pilot whale and human exposures in the Faroe Islands will provide insight into the coupling of the human system to biological exposures, which will advance understanding among the One Health community. New methods for characterizing the cultural and social value of fishing activities will be developed by analyzing risk tolerance for high levels of pollutant exposures, or consumption of seafood beyond recommended health-based guidelines.Co-funding for this award is being provided by Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) program one of NSF's 10 Big Ideas. NNA supports projects that address convergence scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic, empower new research partnerships, diversify the next generation of Arctic researchers, enhance efforts in formal and informal education, and integrate the co-production of knowledge where appropriate. This award aligns with those goals.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.