C2H2 EAGER: Exploring Climate Drivers of Traditional Food Intake in Alaska Native Communities

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

Indigenous peoples in Alaska are among our nation’s most vulnerable populations. They are affected cumulatively and disproportionately by structural, societal, and geophysical determinants of health. Alaska Native health and well-being is tied to the land and environment. In rural Alaskan Native communities, for which a subsistence lifestyle is a nutritional imperative as well as a cultural and spiritual anchor. As a result, changes in the environment deeply impact their physical and mental health. This research addresses how climate change has resulted in changes to traditional food intake that has in turn impacted the health and welfare of Alaskan Native people. The impacts of long-term and short-term climate variation on subsistence activity have been well-documented in surveys and interviews with Indigenous communities. This research provides complementary evidence for historical relationships that are otherwise challenging to analyze due to lack of data. The project does this by including geoscience parameters, engaging geoscientists in the research, and examining geoscience principles related to critical climate variables related to subsistence food sources. These parameters include temperature, sea ice extent, precipitation, and others as documented over decades-long time frames. Alaskan Native diet indicators will be determined from data from blood samples of Native Alaskans that reside in Alaskan public health archives. Broader impacts of the work include environmental justice and equity understandings of native Alaskan communities that build on unique data sources and access to new expertise and well developed Alaskan Native community relationships. Results of the research will have implications for health equity in the face of climate change across Alaska. This exploratory study seeks to develop novel, climate change, and human health indicator models demonstrating the longitudinal linkages between climatic variables and traditional food consumption in rural Alaskan Native communities. The research involves an expert interdisciplinary team, based out of the University of Alaska Fairbanks which is an institution in an EPSCoR state. The team expertise covers various fields and has representation from geoscientists, nutrition biologists, and medical/public health professionals. The work integrates western knowledge and approaches with Alaskan Native Indigenous knowledge and interaction with Native Alaskans. Researchers at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy are responsible for modeling climate variables at the regional and subregional scale, including monthly temperature, precipitation, and sea ice extent, as well as the annual timing of river ice break-up. Data, over multiple decades, will be examined (i.e., from the 1970s through the 2010s) for a number of rural Alaskan Native communities. Researchers from the Center for Alaska Native Health Research are responsible for identifying dietary transitions in rural Indigenous communities using natural-abundance, stable isotope, and biomarkers in blood serum samples archived at the Alaska Area Specimen Bank over the time period of investigation. Modeling of longitudinal trends in traditional food intake include comparison with changes in climatic variables and community geography (coastal vs. up-river) and seasonality of traditional diets. The research team, with guidance from Alaskan Native community members, will identify extreme weather and seasonal events with significant historical impact on subsistence harvesting activities. Short-term impacts in traditional food intake will also be examined. Exploring climate drivers of traditional food intake over time could transform our current knowledge, policies, and practices for natural resource management in Alaska by examining the linked aspects of human health impacts to climate change. The research team's long-time engagement with Alaskan Native communities makes it well-positioned to interact effectively with Native communities and able carry out the work proposed. This novel, transdisciplinary approach lays the groundwork for other studies to improve our knowledge of the diet and health of indigenous Alaskan communities and their tie to climate change. 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.