Environmental and Social Change in the North Atlantic Arc (NAArc)

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

The North Atlantic Arc project explores the linkages between environment and social change in fisheries-dependent regions of the North Atlantic. Building on previous research that focused on the cod crises of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the project involves comparative analysis of data on recent oceanographic, biological, and socioeconomic changes affecting communities in Iceland, Newfoundland, Norway, and Greenland. The research has four goals: (1) document changes in fisheries-dependent societies; (2) construct a detailed picture of common patterns and regional differences in the dynamics of human-environment interactions; (3) explore hypotheses about individual, community, and enterprise adaptations to large-scale environmental change; and (4) develop empirical knowledge and models for evaluating possible policy responses.