RII Track-1: Interface of Change: Building Collaborations to Assess Harvested and Farmed Marine Species Prioritized by Gulf of Alaska Communities Facing Environmental Shifts

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

Environmental changes occurring in northern latitudes are having major effects on Alaska, including widespread glacial recession, thawing permafrost, and changes in hydrologic regimes, thus affecting coastal watersheds. These environmental impacts are significantly affecting coastal Alaska, including the Gulf of Alaska. The Interface of Change (IoC) project will build capacity in community co-developed, use-inspired research on seaweeds, shellfish, and mariculture across Alaska. The IoC team, along with an extensive group of collaborators, plans to use remote sensing, modeling, environmental data, field surveys, and lab and field experiments to understand and quantify changes to freshwater and material export in the region. The broader impacts activities of IoC include engaging coastal communities in Alaska in place-based formal and informal STEM activities and fostering entrepreneurship connected to IoC activities and findings. IoC will be administered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks in collaboration with University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Alaska Southeast. IoC seeks to 1) build collaborative research capacity to assess the impact of environmentally induced changes on marine resources important to high-latitude coastal communities; and 2) generate environmental data and web-based tools to inform adaptive community solutions to sustainably wild-harvest and farm marine species. To achieve these goals, IoC researchers will address traditional seaweed harvesters' concerns regarding optimal harvest-timing and location, and the effects of increased glacial discharge on seaweed harvest. The IoC team will characterize land- and ocean-influenced environmental parameters to determine their impact on bivalve distribution, abundance, and physiology at sites selected in consultation with local communities. The IoC team will determine how fish populations and fishing communities are responding to environmental change through a multidisciplinary approach incorporating local and traditional knowledge, environmental science, remote sensing, ecohydrology, coastal hydrology, and fisheries biology. The team will engage with both subsistence harvesters and farmers to characterize changes to community use of marine species. The IoC team will leverage existing harvest surveys, summarize the most recent harvest data in each study region, and identify key changes over time. Research efforts will be well integrated with education and workforce development plans that span academic, Tribal, federal, state, and private sectors. 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.