Doctoral Dissertation Award: Human Adaptation To Environmental Variability

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

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.