Sea-Ice System Services: A Framework to Help Identify and Meet Information Needs Relevant for Arctic Observing Networks

The need for data from an Arctic observing network to help stakeholders with planning and action is generally recognized. Two key research concerns arise: (1) potential contrasts between fundamental and applied science in the design of an observing system, and (2) development of best practices to ensure that stakeholder needs both inform and can be met from such an observing system. We propose a framework based on the concept of sea-ice system services (SISS) to meet these challenges and categorize the ways in which stakeholders perceive, measure, and use sea ice. Principal service categories are (1) climate regulator, marine hazard, and coastal buffer; (2) transportation and use as a platform; (3) cultural services obtained from the “icescape”; and (4) support of food webs and biological diversity. Our research focuses on cases of ice as platform and marine hazard in Arctic Alaska. We identify the information for each SISS category that users need to track, forecast, and adapt to changes. The resulting framework can address multiple information needs and priorities, integrate information over the relevant spatio-temporal scales, and provide an interface with local knowledge. To plan for an integrated Arctic Observing Network, we recommend a consortium-based approach with the academic community as an impartial intermediary that uses the SISS concept to identify common priorities across the range of sea-ice users.Il est généralement reconnu qu’il faudrait avoir accès à des données prélevées à partir d’un réseau d’observation de l’Arctique pour aider les parties prenantes à planifier et à prendre les mesures qui s’imposent. Il existe deux grandes sources de préoccupations à ce sujet : 1) les contrastes potentiels entre la science fondamentale et la science appliquée en matière de conception d’un système d’observation; et 2) la mise au point des meilleures pratiques pour s’assurer qu’un tel système d’observation informe les parties prenantes et réponde à leurs besoins. Nous proposons un cadre de référence fondé sur le concept des services d’un système de glace de mer (SISS) pour relever ces défis et catégoriser les manières dont les parties prenantes perçoivent, mesurent et utilisent la glace de mer. Les principales catégories de service sont les suivantes : 1) régulateur climatique, obstacle marin et tampon côtier; 2) moyen de transport et plateforme; (3) services culturels obtenus à partir du « paysage glaciaire »; et 4) soutien du réseau trophique et de la diversité biologique. Notre recherche porte plus précisément sur les cas où la glace sert de plateforme et présente un obstacle marin dans l’Arctique alaskien. Nous identifions l’information que les utilisateurs doivent repérer, prévoir et adapter aux changements dans le cas de chaque catégorie du SISS. Le cadre de référence qui en résulte peut répondre à de multiples besoins et priorités en matière d’information, intégrer l’information sur des échelles spatiotemporelles pertinentes et fournir une interface avec les connaissances locales. Afin de planifier en vue de l’établissement d’un réseau intégré d’observation de l’Arctique, nous recommandons la formation d’un genre de consortium composé de chercheurs, consortium servant d’intermédiaire impartial utilisant le concept SISS pour déterminer les priorités qui sont communes aux usagers de la glace de mer

The human dimensions of marine mammal management in a time of rapid change: comparing policies in Canada, Finland and the United States

Arctic coastal populations share a close relationship with their environment consisting of linkages among communities, landscapes and seascapes, and the social institutions developed to sustain the system. This cultural-biogeophysical dynamic is termed throughout the section as a social-ecological system (SES). Marine mammals constitute a large portion of the subsistence diet for these communities, and as such represent key ecological services provided by the system. At the same time, marine mammals have gained iconic status as symbols for climate change in the North. A tension results between the demands of balancing on one hand good policy optics consistent with national and international norms and, on the other hand, flexible and adaptive institutions able to take on the task of managing resources in a dynamic, changing North. This tension and associated policy solutions such as co-management are explored in a series of papers focusing on marine mammal management dilemmas and policy practices around the circumpolar North. This introduction communicates the problem context and describes the five papers making up this special section. A guiding premise to this work is that new international pressures to implement moratoria on marine mammal hunting in the North ignore critical human dimensions of marine mammal management. Such policy proposals are unlikely to succeed in areas that require collaboration across scales. Simultaneously, new local-scale participation in multi-level management regimes holds promise for creating more resilient marine mammal SESs.Marine mammals Human dimensions Policy Climate change Social-ecological systems Arctic

Application of the DAPSIWRM framework to the North Slope of Alaska.

Application of the DAPSIWRM framework to the North Slope of Alaska.</p

Growth and Collapse of a Resource System: an Adaptive Cycle of Change in Public Lands Governance and Forest Management in Alaska

Large-scale government efforts to develop resources for societal benefit have often experienced cycles of growth and decline that leave behind difficult social and ecological legacies. To understand the origins and outcomes of these failures of resource governance, scholars have applied the framework of the adaptive cycle. In this study, we used the adaptive cycle as a diagnostic approach to trace the drivers and dynamics of forest governance surrounding a boom-bust sequence of industrial forest management in one of the largest-scale resource systems in U.S. history: the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska. Our application of the adaptive cycle combined a historical narrative tracing dynamics in political, institutional, and economic subsystems and a longitudinal analysis of an indicator of overall system behavior (timber harvests). We found that federal policies in concert with global market changes drove transformative change in both forest governance (policy making) and forest management (practices), through creation and dissolution of subsidized long-term lease contracts. Evidence of the systemic resilience provided by these leases was found in the analysis of industry responses to market volatility before and after Tongass-specific federal reforms. Although the lease contracts stabilized the Tongass system for a period of time, they fostered a growing degree of rigidity that contributed to a severe industrial collapse and the subsequent emergence of complex social traps. Broader lessons from the Tongass suggest that large-scale changes occurred only when the nested economic and policy cycles were in coherence, and a systemic effort to minimize social and ecological variability ultimately resulted in catastrophic collapse of governance. This collapse resulted in a pervasive and challenging legacy that prevents Tongass reorganization and limits the adaptive capacity of the larger social-ecological system of southeastern Alaska. Although this legacy has inhibited system renewal for two decades, recent trends indicate the emergence of new opportunities for progress toward sustainable governance of the Tongass National Forest

Preliminary OGSES Typology Chart.

Preliminary OGSES Typology Chart.</p

Building resilience through interlocal relations: Case studies of polar bear and walrus management in the Bering Strait

Arctic coastal communities in the Bering Strait region of Alaska (USA) and Chukotka (Russia) share a close relationship with their natural environments that can be characterized as a social-ecological system. This system is complex, featuring changing ecosystem conditions, multiple jurisdictions, migratory animal populations, and several cultures. We argue that linkages between communities in both countries enhance the effectiveness of transborder polar bear and walrus conservation. We find that locally embedded bilateral institutions can provide effective management venues that persist despite slow or lacking processes of international law because they provide a better fit between rules for managing and the true system state.Social-ecological systems Transborder conservation Wildlife management Cross-scale interactions Co-management Marine mammals

The Assessment and Evaluation of Arctic Research – Where Have We Come From and Where Do We Need to Go in the Future?

This essay represents the penultimate chapter of a volume that focuses on change in the Arctic and the challenges and opportunities for conducting research within the context of NordForsk’s Responsible Development of the Arctic initiative. It provides both a backward glance at the needs that inspired this undertaking and seeks to offer some forward-looking ideas and suggestions as to the direction for future similarly-directed research efforts within the North. It gives attention to the important roles which assessment and evaluation have played in the evolution of the NordForsk project and focuses attention on the specific work of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) within this context. It discusses some of the challenges the SAB has encountered in conducting its work. Comparisons are also made with similar efforts at assessment and evaluation conducted by other funders of Arctic research. Views are also presented in this essay on the nature of integrated assessment within large and complex undertakings like the Responsible Development of the Arctic. Finally, a discussion is offered concerning where the future of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary scientific research in the Arctic may be headed and the requirements it must embrace in order to be successful

Adaptive governance and the human dimensions of marine mammal management: Implications for policy in a changing North

As climate change has driven dramatic changes in Northern sea ice regimes, marine mammals have gained iconic status around the world reflecting the perils of global warming. There is a tension between policies that have international support like a ban on seal hunting or whaling, and the adoption of adaptive, flexible rules that are likely to work in Northern places. Whereas most wildlife policy focuses on biological information to inform policy strategy, this analysis focuses on the "human dimensions" of Northern marine mammal management. This research examines ways in which human relationships and modes of governance affect conservation success. Standard analyses of risk to animal populations focused on direct sources of take are inadequate to address multi-causal, complex problems such as climate-induced habitat loss or increased industrialization of the Arctic Ocean. Early conservation policy strategies focusing on the moratorium of take have eliminated or reduced such practices as commercialized hunting and high levels of fisheries bycatch, but may be less relevant in an era in which habitats and climate changes are key drivers of population dynamics. This paper argues that effective adaptive policy requires new ways of learning about and governing human interactions with marine mammals. Through an exploration of marine mammal management in three Northern regions (Alaska, Nunavut, and the Finnish Baltic Sea coast), the paper analyzes the extent to which these marine mammal management regimes are practicing adaptive governance, that is, building cross-scale (local to international) understanding while allowing actors at the local scale the flexibility to direct the creation of rules that are ecologically robust and likely to succeed. Lessons are taken from these examples and used to propose selected policy and research recommendations for the marine mammal policy community.Marine mammals Adaptive governance Institutional performance Climate change Arctic governance

Permafrost degradation increases risk and large future costs of infrastructure on the Third Pole

Abstract The damage to infrastructure caused by near-surface permafrost degradation is directly related to the well-being of 10 million people and the sustainable development on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Third Pole of the Earth. Here we identify the economic damage caused by permafrost degradation to infrastructure on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by integrating data-driven projection, multihazard index, and lifespan replacement model. We found that additional cost of approximately $6.31 billion will be needed to maintain the service function of current infrastructure under the historical scenario (SSP245) by 2090. While 20.9$1.32 billion relative to the 2 °C target of Paris Agreement. These findings highlight the importance of mitigating global warming and of investment in the adaptation and maintenance of infrastructure on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which has a sparse population but is a climate hotspot

Vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related fire impacts in rural and urban interior Alaska

This paper explores whether fundamental differences exist between urban and rural vulnerability to climate-induced changes in the fire regime of interior Alaska. We further examine how communities and fire managers have responded to these changes and what additional adaptations could be put in place. We engage a variety of social science methods, including demographic analysis, semi-structured interviews, surveys, workshops and observations of public meetings. This work is part of an interdisciplinary study of feedback and interactions between climate, vegetation, fire and human components of the Boreal forest social–ecological system of interior Alaska. We have learned that although urban and rural communities in interior Alaska face similar increased exposure to wildfire as a result of climate change, important differences exist in their sensitivity to these biophysical, climate-induced changes. In particular, reliance on wild foods, delayed suppression response, financial resources and institutional connections vary between urban and rural communities. These differences depend largely on social, economic and institutional factors, and are not necessarily related to biophysical climate impacts per se. Fire management and suppression action motivated by political, economic or other pressures can serve as unintentional or indirect adaptation to climate change. However, this indirect response alone may not sufficiently reduce vulnerability to a changing fire regime. More deliberate and strategic responses may be required, given the magnitude of the expected climate change and the likelihood of an intensification of the fire regime in interior Alaska