Ecological Calendars for Climate Change Adaptation in Sary Mogol, Kyrgyzstan

Ecological calendars have been used by communities in various contexts for timing agricultural and cultural events as well as for grounding them in place. While these calendars are fluid and adaptable by nature, outside forces have caused many of them to be diminished in their usability. In Sary Mogol, a community located in the Pamir-Alai Mountain Range in Kyrgyzstan, these forces have taken the form of Soviet era restructuring and collectivization, resulting in discontinuity of knowledge transfer. Climate change is an additional pressure on this community which relies heavily on pastoralism and crop production. This thesis takes a holistic approach in addressing the question of if the revitalization of ecological calendars can assist communities facing the pressures of climate change, through the synthesis of an ecological calendar of Sary Mogol and an analysis of the influence of the nearby coal mine and other pressures

Reproductive parameters of Bering‐Chukchi‐Beaufort Seas bowhead whales

Data from Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), harvested during 1973–2021 by aboriginal subsistence hunters, were used to estimate reproductive parameters: length at sexual maturity (LSM), age at sexual maturity (ASM), pregnancy rate (PR), and calving interval. Sexual maturity (N = 187 females) was determined from the presence/absence of corpora in the ovaries, or a fetus. Using sampling bias-corrected logistic regression, LSM was estimated at 13.5 m, 95% CI [13.0, 13.8]. There was a downward trend in LSM over time, statistically significant with one method but marginal with another. A growth model translated this estimate to an ASM estimate of 23.5 years, 95% CI [20.4, 26.7]. Pregnancy rate was determined from mature females (N = 125), and from a subset limited to certain autumn-caught whales (n = 37) to reduce bias. The PR was estimated at 0.46 globally, 95% CI [0.36, 0.55] and 0.38 for the autumn sample, 95% CI [0.20, 0.51]. Both estimated PRs are consistent with a 3-year calving interval, because the larger estimate includes two cohorts of pregnant whales harvested in spring, and bowhead whale gestation is longer than 12 months. These analyses represent the most conclusive empirical estimates of ASM, LSM, and PR for this bowhead whale stock from the largest available data sets to date