Plant Communities of Archaeological Sites, Abandoned Dwellings, and Trampled Tundra in the Eastern Canadian Arctic: A Multivariate Analysis

Arctic terrestrial ecosystems subjected to anthropogenic disturbance return to their original state only slowly, if at all. Investigations of abandoned settlements on three islands in the eastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago have detected striking similarities among contemporary and ancient human settlements with regard to their effects on tundra vegetation and soils. Ordination procedures using 240 quadrats showed the plant assemblages of Thule (ca. 800 B.P.) winter dwellings on northern Devon and southern Cornwallis Islands to be floristically similar to pedestrian-trampled meadows on northeast Baffin Island last used ca. 1969. Comparisons from the literature made with other North American sites in the Low Arctic reveal similar findings. The implication is that the depauperate flora of the Arctic has a limited number of species able to respond to disturbance, and that anthropogenically disturbed patches may be extremely persistent.Les écosystèmes terrestres arctiques soumis à une perturbation anthropique ne retournent que lentement - lorsqu'ils le font - à leur état initial. Des études faites sur des établissements abandonnés dans trois îles de l'archipel Arctique canadien oriental ont permis de constater des ressemblances frappantes entre les établissements humains contemporains et anciens en ce qui concerne leurs effets sur la végétation et les sols de la toundra. Les procédures d'ordination portant sur 240 quadrats ont montré que les communautés végétales des habitations d'hiver de Thulé (v. 800 BP) situées dans le nord de l'île Devon et le sud de l'île Cornwallis, sont similaires au plan de la flore aux prairies piétinées par l'homme v. 1969 dans le nord-est de la terre de Baffin. Des comparaisons établies à partir de documentation réalisée sur d'autres sites nord-américains dans le Bas-Arctique révèlent des constatations similaires. L'implication est que la flore souffreteuse de l'Arctique possède un nombre limité d'espèces capables de réagir aux perturbations, et que les endroits perturbés anthropiquement pourraient demeurer tels quels très longtemps

Cultural Resilience of Social-ecological Systems in the Nenets and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia:A Focus on Reindeer Nomads of the Tundra

Empirical data on resilience in social-ecological systems (SESs) are reviewed from local and regional scale case studies among full-time nomads in the neighboring Nenets and Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia. The focus is on critical cultural factors contributing to SES resilience. In particular, this work presents an integrated view of people situated in specific tundra landscapes that face significantly different prospects for adaptation depending on existing or planned infrastructure associated with oil and gas development. Factors contributing to general resilience are compared to those that are adapted to certain spatial and temporal contexts. Environmental factors include ample space and an abundance of resources, such as fish and game (e.g., geese), to augment the diet of not only the migratory herders, but also residents from coastal settlements. In contrast to other regions, such as the Nenets Okrug, Yamal Nenets households consist of intact nuclear families with high retention among youth in the nomadic tundra population. Accepting attitudes toward exogenous drivers such as climate change and industrial development appear to play a significant role in how people react to both extreme weather events and piecemeal confiscation or degradation of territory. Consciousness of their role as responsible stewards of the territories they occupy has likely been a factor in maintaining viable wildlife populations over centuries. Institutions administering reindeer herding have remained flexible, especially on Yamal, and so accommodate decision-making that is sensitive to herders' needs and timetables. This affects factors such as herd demography, mobility and energetics. Resilience is further facilitated within the existing governance regimes by herders' own agency, most recently in the post-Soviet shift to smaller, privately managed herds that can better utilize available pastures in a highly dynamic environment experiencing rapid socio-economic, climate and land use change

Focus on recent, present and future Arctic and boreal productivity and biomass changes

The reduction of cold temperature constraints on photosynthesis in recent decades has led to extended growing seasons and increased plant productivity (greening) in significant parts of Polar, Arctic and Boreal regions, here called northern lands. However, most territories within these regions display stable productivity in recent years. Smaller portions of Arctic and Boreal regions show reduced productivity (browning). Summer drought and wildfires are the best documented drivers causing browning of continental areas. Yet factors like winter warming events dampening the greening effect of more maritime regions have remained elusive, least monitored and least understood. ANorway-US network project called ArcticBiomass was launched in 2013 to further reveal both positive and negative effects of climate change on biomass in Arctic and Boreal regions. This focus collection named Focus on Recent, Present and Future Arctic and Boreal Productivity and Biomass Changes includes 24 articles and is an important outcome of this work and addresses recent changes in phenology, biomass and productivity and the mechanisms. These mechanisms include former human interactions (legacies) and drivers that control such changes (both greening and browning), along with consequences for local, regional and global scale processes.Wecomplete our synthesis by stressing remaining challenges and knowledge gaps, and provide an outlook on future needs and research questions in the study of climate and human driven interactions in terrestrial Arctic and Boreal ecosystems.publishedVersio

Environmental and Social Impacts of Industrialization in Northern Russia (ENSINOR)

The overall aim of ENSINOR was the co-production of knowledge that stems from different traditions among both scientists and herders and their respective ways of knowing about contemporary social-ecological systems. The project undertook a multidisciplinary analysis of the social and environmental consequences of energy development in northern Russia. A comparative study of effect of two key federal districts in northwest Russia - Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO) and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO) - was made with links to the global level on the basis of scientific and local knowledge. NAO and YNAO contain Russia’s most productive proven energy sources for the present and the foreseeable future. The extensive gas and oil fields overlap with the homelands of indigenous peoples whose traditional livelihoods – reindeer herding, augmented by fishing, hunting and gathering – are at risk from changes in land use associated with petroleum exploration and exploitation, in addition to climate-related changes

Equity, Vulnerability and Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems: a contemporary example from the Russian Arctic

Environmental and social problems are tightly linked in coupled social-ecological systems in the Arctic. The article discusses the importance of equity as a factor in the adaptive capacity of a region undergoing relatively rapid climate change and simultaneous land use change in the northwest Russian Arctic

Tipping points and regime shifts in reindeer husbandry:a systems approach

This chapter addresses the challenges to reindeer husbandry in Fennoscandia from a systems perspective. Drawing on information in other chapters in this book, the specific focus is on so called tipping points, or abrupt changes in the coupled social-ecological system. Tipping points may occur when external drivers push a system to an alternative system state, characterized by different feedbacks than in the original state. Compared to ‘ideal’ or traditional reindeer husbandry, examples of alternative states include reliance on supplementary feeding to compensate for losses of pastures, fencing herds to provide protection from predation, becoming a meat-processing industry based on more centralized herding practices and a total loss of reindeer husbandry. All of these states are seen as undesirable by the herders. Reindeer husbandry, as it is currently practised, requires intact social-ecological relationships within the herding districts, as well as in their interaction with the external society. These system qualities need to be strengthened as they innately provide resilience, and will demand structural, institutional and legislative changes, but also discursive changes of how we imagine what sustainability is, and whether herders are treated as one of many stakeholders or as the rights holders that they really are according to the law