Unfortunately, the availability and quality of Arctic berries has been dropping due to climate change and pollution from anthropogenic activities such as mining. Berries are an important source of food in times of scarcity, and the geographical distribution of the different berry species is also part of the community knowledge. Due to the warmer temperatures, the competition for the berries between Inuit and wildlife is raising as certain species, such as the Canadian geese, are increasing in numbers.

A recent study published in Human Ecology, shows the importance that berries have for the different Inuit communities and how this natural resource is part of the culture and important for their subsistence. For that reason, efforts are being made to include berry-associated activities in conservation policies and land use planning, as a way of mitigating climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the ecosystem, as well as maintaining Inuit culture.

———

Source: Boulanger-Lapointe N., Gérin-Lajoie J., Collier L.S., Desrosiers S., Spiech C., Henry G.H.R., Hermanutz L., Lévesque E. and Cuerrier A. (2019) Berry Plants and Berry Picking in Inuit Nunangat: Traditions in a Changing Socio-Ecological Landscape. Human Ecology 47:81-93. doi: 10.1007/s10745-018-0044-5

Author: Ricardo Matias

For the last 15,000 years, humans and dogs traveled, hunted, and lived together. Dogs were brought to North America from Asian regions by the first colonizers. Much later, when Europeans colonized the Americas, European domestic dogs started breeding with the indigenous dogs leading to a mix of their genetic signatures. But are all modern dogs so mixed that none of the heritage from indigenous dogs persisted? In more remote regions of North America – the Arctic – this is not the case.

In the Arctic, dogs have been important companions and workers, playing central roles in travelling in the ice and snow. Sled dogs – or qimmiq in the native language Inuktitut – are still an important component of the Inuit culture, and are even the symbol of Nunavut, the only territory fully governed by Inuit.

Researchers from the United States compared mitochondrial DNA from modern dogs with dog remains from archeological excavations in the Alaskan Arctic and Greenland. When comparing with worldwide information on the most common domestic dog haplotypes – a set of DNA variations that tend to be inherited together – they found that the haplotype A31, only seen in Arctic dogs, was common to both the archaeological and modern dogs from Greenland and to some extent Alaska. This haplotype, along with other unique less frequent ones, indicate an indigenous matrilineal ancestry of modern dogs in the North, which seems to be relatively unchanged for at least the past 700 years!

This type of information can be used to track human migratory routes in time and space, as humans and dogs traveled together. Like Greenland, DNA of dogs in regions such as East Asia, parts of Africa, Island Southeast Asia, Australia and Middle East, still preserves information about Neolithic migrations.

———–

Sources: Brown SK, Darwent CM, Sacks BN (2013) Ancient DNA evidence for genetic continuity in arctic dogs. J Archaeol Sci 40:1279–1288. doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.09.010.

Author: Sara Pedro

Increased climate change in the Arctic has already led to changes in the interactions between its inhabitants and the available natural resources, which may put into question the cultural practices of indigenous peoples, i.e. their identity, as well as their security to feed.

Through the analysis of the perceptions of 71 harvesters from four indigenous communities in Alaska, climate trends and the observed effects of these trends on the availability of subsistence resources were described, namely: abundance, distribution and accessibility.

These results were related to climate projections based on climate studies, in order to predict how the availability of subsistence resources could change in the future. From this correlation, a prediction of a reduction in the availability of subsistence resources in the next 30 years related to the climatic challenges, results mainly in the difficulty to their access and not by changes in the abundance or distribution of resources.

The study highlights a small but important subset of changes related to resource access in the 4 indigenous communities related to climate change. While the focus is on the effects of environmental factors, researchers recognize that various social and economic factors can also influence hunting patterns and resource availability, such as high fuel prices that limit the number and distance of subsistence trips.

While this study has provided valuable insights, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary when trying to understand climate change and its consequences, there is still much uncertainty as to the extent of climate implications for high-altitude subsistence communities. Research in various fields (impact of rural innovation, characterization of environmental disruption mechanisms…) is needed to assess the social consequences of climate impacts on livelihood practices.

Climate-driven forecasts in changes in availability (with and without accounting for access) of key subsistence resources between the decades 2000–2009 and 2030–2039 based on perceived relationships identified by harvesters in the Alaskan communities of Fort Yukon, Venetie, Wainwright, and Kaktovikaktovik.

———-

Source: Brinkman, T. J., Hansen, W. D., Chapin, F. S., Kofinas, G., BurnSilver, S., & Rupp, T. S. (2016). Arctic communities perceive climate impacts on access as a critical challenge to availability of subsistence resources. Climatic Change, 139(3-4), 413-427. doi: 10.1007/s10584-016-1819-6

​

Author: Patrícia Azinhaga