A reindeer herder’s perspective on caribou, weather and socio-economic change on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska

Polar research

William Schneider¹  Knut Kielland²  Kumi Rattenbury³  Greg Finstad⁴ 

[1] Alaska and Polar Regions Department, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA;Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757000, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000, USA;National Park Service, 4175 Geist Road, Fairbanks, AK 99709, USACorrespondence;School of Natural Resource and Agricultural Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757140, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA

关键词: Alaska;    climate change;    Rangifer tarandus;    reindeer;    reindeer herding;    weather;   

DOI  :  10.1111/j.1751-8369.2009.00102.x

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

Non-climate variables shape vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change. Here, we describe how recent environmental and socio-economic developments have transformed reindeer herding and perceptions of weather on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The reindeer industry has shrunk considerably since the early 1990s, when the winter range of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd expanded, and over 17 000 reindeer mixed with migrating caribou and left the region. Socio-economic and environmental repercussions make the continuation of herding tenuous, and erode the ability of herders to cope with weather variability, among other perturbations. We present a case study of one herder’s annual cycle, and juxtapose physical drivers of herding activities, including weather-station and herder observations of local weather variability, with socio-economic factors. There is an increased urgency to access and monitor reindeer with caribou present, but herding plans are constrained by lower economic returns and the need t...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC