Climatic Change DOI 10.

1007/s10584-013-0883-4

Identifying the exposure of two subsistence villages in Alaska to climate change using traditional ecological knowledge
Jonathan Andrew Ignatowski & Jon Rosales

Received: 21 November 2012 / Accepted: 19 August 2013 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Abstract Dramatic climatic change in the Arctic elevates the importance of determining the risk of exposure for people living in vulnerable areas and developing effective adaptation programs. Climate change assessment reports are valuable, and often definitive, sources of information for decision makers when constructing adaptation plans, yet the scope of these reports is too coarse to identify site-specific exposure to the impacts of climate change and adaptation needs. Subsistence hunters and gatherers in the Arctic are valuable knowledge holders of climate-related change in their area. Incorporating both their traditional ecological knowledge and information found in climate science assessment reports can offer adaption planners a deeper understanding of exposure to climate change and local adaptation needs. In this study, we compare information found in assessment reports of climate change in the Arctic with what we have learned from the Alaskans Sharing Indigenous Knowledge project from 2009 to 2012, a research project documenting traditional ecological knowledge in two Native villages in Alaska, Savoonga and Shaktoolik. Content analysis of the interviews with hunters and gatherers reveal the site-specific impacts of climate change affecting these two villages. We find that their traditional ecological knowledge is complimentary and largely corroborates the climate science found in assessment reports. Traditional ecological knowledge, however, is more current to the social and local conditions of the villages, and presents a more unified social and biophysical portrayal of the impacts of climate change. If taken together, these two forms of knowledge can focus adaptation planning on the pertinent needs of the communities in question. 1 Introduction Climate change in the Arctic is more pronounced than in any other region on the planet (IPCC 2012) and is expected to continue to exceed the change seen in other regions this century (IPCC 2007). Over the last 50 years Alaska warmed 1.9 C in annual temperature and 3.5 C in winter
J. A. Ignatowski Library, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617, USA e-mail: jonathanignatowski@gmail.com J. Rosales (*) Department of Environmental Studies, St. Lawrence University, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617, USA e-mail: jrosales@stlawu.edu

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temperatures (USGCRP 2009) causing significant impacts, including loss of sea ice, increased storm intensity, and shifting phenology (ACIA 2004; USGCRP 2009; AMAP 2011; IPCC 2012). These changes greatly impact indigenous peoples in the Arctic and their traditional, subsistence way of life (IPCC 2007) that depends upon a predictable climate to successfully hunt bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), seals, walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), and caribou (Rangifer tarandus), and to gather murre eggs (Uria aalge), tundra greens, and berries. The severity of climate change impacts depends on a communitys particular degree of exposure and vulnerability to these changes (IPCC 2012). Vulnerability is a function of exposure to climate change risks and the adaptive capacity of the community (Ford and Smit 2004). We focus on the degree of exposure of two native communities in Alaska, Savoonga and Shaktoolik. Exposure is defined as being in the presence of potentially damaging physical change in the environment (IPCC 2012). Climate change increases the occurrence of those changes. While some changes may be positive, such as lower heating costs, we focus on the exposure to negative impacts of climate change. Exposure varies across social and physical scales, including geography and location, settlement patterns, climatic changes that outstrip adaptive capacities, past government failures or a history of mal-development, and the financial wealth within a community (IPCC 2012). Observed impacts that, individual or compounded, can jeopardize a communitys health and safety must be inventoried to ascertain exposure, and that inventory can then be used to assess the vulnerability of a locality and to determine their adaptation needs (IPCC 2012). We endeavor to show that the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of hunters and gatherers is a valuable source of information for the development of such an inventory. The people living in the Arctic who practice subsistence activities witness climate change closely (Krupnik and Jolly 2002). Along with continued efforts by climate change scientists, observations of environmental change by subsistence hunters and gatherers are important to document for a deeper understanding of how to develop effective adaptation plans. Their observations carry great weight outside of the Arctic as well for they portend the rapid and dramatic climate change that the rest of humanity may face, the secondary impacts that affect climate patterns outside of the Arctic, and our ethical imperative to act on climate change (Green and Raygorodetsky 2010), yet their knowledge is often overlooked with adaptation preparations (Salick and Ross 2009). The TEK content herein is generated from the work of the Alaskans Sharing Indigenous Knowledge (AKSIK) project over its first phase from 2009 to 2012. AKSIK is a multi-year science and advocacy project dedicated to documenting the impacts of climate change that native people in Savoonga and Shaktoolik are witnessing and to communicate their adaptation needs (www.aksik.org). AKSIK operates as a boundary organization (Guston 2001) between academic and non-academic knowledge for the co-production of knowledge. We adopt Ushers (2000: 4) definition of TEK as all types of knowledge about the environment derived from the experience and traditions of a particular group of people. Subsistence hunters and gatherers who actively use the land and its resources possess a wealth of TEK because of their close observation of the environment, which includes looking for signs of change (Berkes 2009). Subsistence hunters and gatherers in the Arctic hold specific and highly context-sensitive knowledge of their environment (Huntington et al. 2007: 179) such as interrelationships between certain species, knowledge about past and current uses and management practices in a particular landscape, culturally-derived value practices, and culturally-based cosmologies that incorporate explanations of connectedness (Usher 2000; Houde 2007; Gagnon and Berteaux 2009). TEK is especially valuable since it accumulates distinct observations for specific locations or species over successive generations, while climate science typically generalizes over space and time through instrumented, quantified, recorded observation (Usher 2000; Huntington et al. 2004).

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It is not a surprise, then, that researchers want to include TEK as a key component of their research, even though it takes a great deal of time, patience, planning, and communication for both the researcher and TEK holders to establish meaningful engagement (Huntington et al. 2007; Armitage et al. 2011). Even then TEK is often considered unreliable for environmental management (Teixeira et al. 2013). The benefits, however, are significant: confidence of local observations is increased through cross validation (Huntington et al. 2004; Bohensky and Maru 2011); identifying pressing issues (Huntington et al. 2007; Gagnon and Berteaux 2009); and incorporating TEK holders in the policy process, who have for centuries been excluded from such decision making (Bohensky and Maru 2011). In this study, we describe the TEK of exposure to climatic change held by hunters and gatherers in Savoonga and Shaktoolik, Alaska. We then compare that knowledge to the Arctic climate science documented in eight assessment reports to produce an inventory of climate change impacts facing the villages. The inventory of impacts serves to document the exposure to climate change in Savoonga and Shaktoolik. It is important to compare TEK, especially TEK collected to measure vulnerability, with scientific assessment reports the compilation of scientific information requested by governments like the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change because these distilled yet rich reports are critical to the science-policy process (Siebenhuner 2003), as publicly stated by the G8 economic powers (G8 2005: par. 30). Assessment reports are increasingly used as authoritative sources of science for policy formation (Keller 2010) and in the case of the IPCC perhaps a knowledge monopoly (Tol 2011). TEK can refine coarser scale knowledge found in assessment reports to better identify vulnerability and adaptation needs at the local scale. 1.1 Study sites Our research focuses on two native villages in Western Alaska: Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island and Shaktoolik on the mainland (Fig. 1). According to the community profile of the State of Alaska (2012), St. Lawrence Island has been inhabited for at least 2,000 years by Siberian Yupik Eskimos who originally resided in various settlements close to food sources. After a severe famine between 1878 and 1880, and after the introduction of reindeer in 1900, residents on the island adopted a more sedentary lifestyle. A reindeer herding camp, established in 1916, became the present site of Savoonga. The Native Village of Savoonga is a federally recognized tribe and 95 % of the current population of 704 is Alaska Native. Shaktoolik is located on the eastern shore of the Norton Sound. Villagers tell us that archeological evidence of human settlements in the area date back 8,000 years and village sites have moved many times, for known and unknown reasons. According to the State of Alaska (2012) the Malemiut people first occupied Shaktoolik in 1839 with their original village located six miles inland from the coast. The village was moved to the coast in 1933 by the United States government to more conveniently staff the school and deliver mail. The present site is located in the same area near the mouth of the Shaktoolik River. The Native Village of Shaktoolik is a federally recognized tribe with 96 % of its current population of 258 being Alaska Native. The governance of both villages is complex reflecting their historical relationship with federal and state governments. In an effort to assimilate indigenous peoples in the United States, the Dawes Act of 1887 only allowed individuals, rather than communities, the right to own land. The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934 re-established the right of indigenous tribes to self-government and tribal ownership of land through IRA Councils. Savoonga and Shaktoolik manage their legal affairs, social services, and economic concerns through these

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Fig. 1 AKSIK study sites

councils and are the tribes primary point of contact with the federal government. Due to the historical "nation-to-nation" relationship with the federal government, tribes in the United States traditionally look toward the federal government for assistance with health care, education, housing, sanitation, public safety, transportation and environmental projects (ACRGE 1999: 32). City Councils in each community, incorporated throughout Alaska after statehood in 1959, manage municipal services, such as water, sewer, and waste, develop municipal ordinances, and serve as the primary point of contact with State government agencies. The IRA Council and City Council of each village would manage efforts to adapt to climate change. In addition to these formal layers of governance, Shaktoolik is a shareholder of the Bering Strait Native Corporation, established in 1971 by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to settle financial and land claims between the tribes, the state of Alaska, and the federal government (Savoonga opted out of this structure in favor of full title to St. Lawrence Island, equally shared with Gambell, the other village on the island). Native corporations in Alaska also manage natural resources and may be part of Shaktooliks adaptation efforts. The cultures, economies, and identities of both these communities are rooted in their subsistence practices. Our surveys find that subsistence activities are practiced throughout the year (Fig. 2). Specific activities, such as hunting ringed seals (Phoca hispida) or picking salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis), draw villagers out on to the land and require close observation of the landscape. We define subsistence as a way of life that is drawn from the land. A subsistence culture is one where a community develops traditions of obtaining food, fuel, fiber, artistic materials, and identity from the surrounding environment. We agree with Bennholdt-Thomsen and Mies (1999) that the central purpose of subsistence is the production and reproduction of life. Today, the people of Shaktoolik and Savoonga live a hybrid subsistence blending traditional activities, such as hunting, fishing, and gathering, with Western tools and amenities such as high-powered rifles, all-terrain vehicles, and modern medicine. Although their culture now includes Western practices, they remain keenly aware of and close observers of their environment.

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Subsistence Hunting and Gathering Activities

Seal (Fall) Goose Caribou Grayling Walrus (Fall) Sea Peaches Black Berries Salmon Berries Wild Onions Wild Rhubarb Salmon Murre Eggs Herring Eggs Duck Tomcod Grayling Trout Greens Walrus (Spring) Seal (Spring) Whale (Spring) Caribou Ice Fishing Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Length of Season

Fig. 2 Survey results of yearly subsistence activities in Savoonga and Shaktoolik, Alaska

2 Methodology 2.1 Research ethic The AKSIK research method adopts the ethic of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent established in the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN 2008). Free means the research is conducted without coercion; prior emphasizes that consent is sought from appropriate governing bodies before initiating research; informed stresses that the impetus, scope, and risks of the projects are explained to participants and updates are given to the Tribal Councils of the villages. These three conditions are fully incorporated into the consent sought from the village governing bodies and participants for this project. 2.2 Site selection At the outset, our methodology was patterned after Huntingtons (2000) summary of effective methods and applications. During the spring of 2009, all of the native villages in the Norton Sound and Bering Strait area were considered as case studies for this project. Meetings with regional governments and non-profit representatives in 2009 helped us identify two villages with compelling narratives to tell about exposure to climate change. Shaktoolik was chosen due to the increasingly violent storms threatening the village, while Savoonga was chosen due to the impact of the loss of sea ice on their subsistence hunting practices. In addition, both villages were selected because they receive scant media exposure, compared to other Alaskan villages experiencing similar impacts, such as Shishmaref and Newtok, and could benefit from increased public attention. 2.3 Village coordinators In meetings with leaders of each village in 2009, we requested recommendations for capable and knowledgeable individuals in the village to serve as Village Coordinators for our project. The role of the Village Coordinator is to coordinate logistics, recruit interviewees, disseminate information to the

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village about the project, and act as liaisons with the tribal government and community. Acting as a focal and entry point for our work, the Village Coordinators introduced the research project in their respective community and built rapport for our ongoing research. As villagers became acquainted with AKSIK researchers and recognized the long-term intentions of the research initiative, the sharing of information became less inhibited, more robust, and increasingly detailed. 2.4 Interviews Recruitment was conducted by the Village Coordinators who identified community members who were actively engaged in hunting and gathering, were knowledgeable of the local culture, were keen observers of the weather, and/or were recognized resident experts on the changing conditions. Interviewees were most often elders whose knowledge was respected in the community. Thirteen members from each village were interviewed through this process. Similar to the studies compiled in Ford et al. (2010), fixed question, open answer interviews were conducted in interviewees homes during the summers of 20102012. A large inventory of observations, many not related to climate change, was catalogued in 2010 and then narrowed to climate change related categories for the next set of interviews in 2011 and 2012. Our follow-up questions became more specific with each successive year in order to gather more detailed information on each category of change and to focus on a timeframe of the last 20 years as compared to their lifetime experience. In this manner we avoided the propensity to elevate recent weather events and instead focus on trends witnessed in their lifetimes. Interviews were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using Grounded Theory (Glaser 2008). Instead of using a deductive methodology, which traditionally begins with a hypothesis to be tested, the results from Grounded Theory (discussed below in section 4) are hypotheses from which theory can be generated inductively (discussed in section 5) (Glaser 2008). This methodology revealed common themes in these transcribed interviews, and through content analysis, these common themes categorize the TEK of climate change in Shaktoolik and Savoonga. 2.5 Coupling TEK and climate science assessment reports Our findings are compared to those found in eight significant scientific assessment reports covering climate change in the Arctic commissioned by the Arctic Council (ACIA 2004; CAFF 2010; AMAP 2011, 2012), Canadian Polar Commission (CPC Canadian Polar Commission 2012), Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO 2010), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2012), and the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP 2009). Comparing the TEK of climate change in Savoonga and Shaktoolik with the climate science found in these assessment reports enables us to inventory climate changerelated categories they are exposed to in these villages. This inventory can augment coarserscale knowledge found in assessment reports for more effective adaptation planning.

3 Results 3.1 The TEK of climate change in Shaktoolik and Savoonga As distilled from the interviews, residents of Savoonga and Shaktoolik described the changes to the environment they are witnessing and the nature of those changes (Table 1). What we learned, and take as credible collective observations, are those elements of climate change that were cross validated by multiple interviewees over several years. Isolated statements that were

Climatic Change Table 1 The TEK of climate change held by residents of Savoonga and Shaktoolik, Alaska, unless noted, over the last 20 years compared to their lifetime experience Category Physical Weather Seasons Storms Sea ice melt Rain Wind Ocean Tides Beaches Erosion Tundra Permafrost Sediment Biological Plants Animals Social Hunting Gathering Less predictable, fewer opportunities, less safe Less predictable, fewer opportunities, shorter seasons Less predictable harvest; some growing larger; unusual species appearing Change in whale and fish migration routes, times, and duration New animal and insect species appearing More unpredictable on a daily and seasonal basis More variable, inconsistent, and changes more quickly Summer and fall seasons last longer; winters are shorter More severe with stronger winds, waves, flooding, and erosion More life threatening and dangerous; more disruptive to daily life Melting and retreating faster in the spring; thinner in the winter (Savoonga) Less shorefast (Savoonga) and multi-year ice More often, more in winter, and longer rainy periods Predominant direction changed; changes more often; is less predictable Currents have strengthened and are less predictable (Savoonga) Higher high tides (Shaktoolik) and higher low tides (Savoonga) More angled, narrower (Savoonga), and sand type has changed (Shaktoolik) More noticeable on coastlines and riverbanks (Shaktoolik) Lakes disappearing leaving depressions; less snow pack Visible melting along coast (Savoonga), riverbanks (Shaktoolik), and tundra More seen in rivers and at the mouth of rivers (Shaktoolik), and along coastline River channels changing more dramatically (Shaktoolik) Change and direction of change

not repeated by other community members or heard again over the course of our study were omitted from our compilation. Due to the diversity of environmental features in each village and in their particular hunting and gathering practices some changes, such as more sediment in the rivers, were evident only in Shaktoolik, a village that engages in fishing in the rivers. Other changes, such as increased storm intensity, were evident in both villages. There were no direct conflicts or contradictions between the observations documented in each village, only different observations that were not evident in the other village. 3.2 Comparing the TEK of climate change in Savoonga and Shaktoolik with the climate science in assessment reports Comparing the TEK of climate change with knowledge published in climate science assessment reports can increase confidence in climate research through parallel observations (Huntington et al. 2004). These parallel observations reveal areas where the two knowledge systems corroborate (Table 2); where the TEK outpaces the climate science in these assessment reports (Table 3); and where content is found only in the assessment reports (Table 4). We found no overt inconsistencies between the TEK of climate change in these

Climatic Change Table 2 Representative quotes of where the TEK of climate change in Savoonga and Shaktoolik, Alaska (italics) corroborate with the climate science published in assessment reports TEK Corroborating assessment report Representative quote

Weather More unpredictable on a daily and seasonal basis AMAP, USGCRP The weather is more random. We can be out [on the ocean] for a couple hours; we have people on the island to watch out for the weather. It is unpredictable now. It has changed a lot. Previously unseen weather patterns have been observed (AMAP 2012: v). It seems warmer. Summer is longer. Fall is longer. The polar ice pack use to come right around Thanksgiving but now we dont get winter or sea ice until the 3rd to last week of December and in the spring time, like this time of year, we would still have ice, like back in the 1960s, but not anymore due to the quick melting of the sea ice. Over the past 50 years, Alaska has warmed more than twice the rate of the rest of the United States average The higher temperatures are already contributing to earlier spring snowmelt (USGRP 2009: 139). Storms More severe with stronger winds, waves, flooding, and erosion More life threatening and dangerous; more disruptive to daily life USGCRP, ACIA, AMAP, CPC The storms have been getting worse for the last 78 years Arctic storms seem to be growing in intensity if not frequency and northern ocean coasts are adversely impacted by these storms (CPC 2012: 14). IPCC, USGCRP, ACIA, DFO, AMAP The ice is thinning out, and it is coming in late. The ice is getting thinner. Sometimes the walrus cannot get on it since it is too thin. We dont have multi-year ice like we used to. In 2007 and 2008, summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic reached a record-breaking minimum, and multi-year ice was reduced in extent and thickness (DFO 2010: 2). Rain More often, more in winter AMAP When we have lots of rain, the rivers are not getting high from the lack of

More variable, inconsistent and changes quickly Seasons Summer and fall seasons last longer; winters are shorter IPCC, USGCRP, ACIA, AMAP

Sea ice melt Melting and retreating faster in the spring; thinner in the winter; less shore fast and multi-year ice

Climatic Change Table 2 (continued) TEK Corroborating assessment report Representative quote

snow. We are hardly getting any snow. We got rain in February, as late as December. There has been a modest increase in rain and snowfall over Arctic land areas since 1950. The five wettest years on record have all been in the past decade (AMAP 2012: 29) Wind Stronger and less predictable USGCRP, ACIA, AMAP, CPC The winds are stronger than normal, picking up quicker. It seemed like the weather plays with us, changes quickly, more frequently than years ago. High-wind events have become more frequent along the western and northern coasts [of Alaska] (USGCRP United States Global Change Research Program 2009: 143). Erosion More noticeable erosion of tundra on coastlines and riverbanks IPCC, USGCRP, ACIA We have lost a lot of coast line some of the trails we walked on are in the ocean now due to erosion. The high cliffs are losing ground. There is no more beach due to many of the waves, the pounding. Some Arctic coasts are retreating at a rapid rate of 2 to 3 m yr1 and the rate of erosion along Alaskas northeastern coastline has doubled over the past 50 years (IPCC 2012: 189). The pond, the tundra, the lakes are drying up. The deeper ponds are falling under due to melting permafrost. Across the southern two-thirds of Alaska, the area of closed-basin lakes (lakes without stream inputs and outputs) has decreased over the past 50 years. This is likely due to the greater evaporation and thawing of permafrost that result from warming (USGCRP 2009: 141). As the years go by, the river itself has narrowed down, erosion, banks are dropping Every summer it happens like this. Theres banks dropping because of the permafrost

Tundra Lakes disappearing leaving depressions; less snow pack USGCRP, ACIA, AMAP

Permafrost Visible melting along coast, riverbanks, and on tundra USGCRP, AMAP, ACIA

Climatic Change Table 2 (continued) TEK Corroborating assessment report Representative quote

melting underneath. That is what causes banks to drop. Thawing of permafrost is very likely to lead to dramatic increases in terrain slumping and subsequent sediment transport and deposition in rivers, lakes, deltas, and nearshore marine environments. This is likely to produce distinct changes in channel geomorphology (ACIA 2004: 383). Animals Some disappearing; new animal and insect species appearing USGCRP, ACIA, CAFF There used to be plenty of seals when we went hunting now they are scarce. Potential long-term ecological trends due to climate warming [include] Declines in polar bear, and in ringed, harp, hooded, spotted, ribbon, and possibly bearded seals (ACIA 2004: 504). Hunting Less predictable; fewer opportunities; less safe USGCRP, ACIA The ice conditions may look thick but they dont stick around. This spring we only had a week of good hunting and after a week it was gone and the hunters had to go out 100 miles to catch their prey and some of them came back without any food at all. Hunter mobility and safety and the ability to move with changing distribution of resources, particularly on sea ice, are likely to decrease, leading to less hunting success. (ACIA 2004: 1000).

villages and the findings in the climate assessment reports, only contrasting understandings (see Discussion section below) and expressions of the changes.

4 Discussion The TEK we collected in Savoonga and Shaktoolik focuses on perceived exposures to climatic change within the context of their immediate existence and cultural practices. Their observations are supported by multi-generational knowledge passed down from elders, who are traditionally consulted on matters related to climate, especially where climate relates to hunting and gathering activities (see Fig. 2). This form of knowledge is embedded in a local culture and not codified, or what Fabricius et al. (2006) call a tacit-informal classification of knowledge. The verity of this knowledge is not established by physical instruments, but

Climatic Change Table 3 Elements of the TEK of climate change in Shaktoolik and Savoonga, Alaska that are not found in climate science assessment reports Category Rain Wind Ocean Tides Beaches Sediment Plants Animals Gathering Changes Longer rainy periods Predominant direction changed; changes more often Currents have strengthened and are less predictable Higher high tides and higher low tides More angled, narrower, and sand type has changed More seen in rivers, at the mouth of rivers, and along coastline; river channels changing more dramatically Less predictable harvest Change in whale and fish migration routes, times, and duration Shorter seasons

reinforced through repeated observations over a long temporal scale that encompasses the immediate present (Fabricius et al. 2006; Gratani et al. 2011). Climate science as compiled in assessment reports focuses on measured trends and explaining cause and effect relationships through instrumented observations and models, or what Fabricius et al. (2006) call an explicit-formal classification system where trained scientists codify knowledge. Instrumental measurement is an essential component to this type of knowledge, but it also
Table 4 Representative elements of climate science found in assessment reports that are not evident in the TEK of climate change in Shaktoolik and Savoonga, Alaska Category Reported Trend Climate Significant warming in the Arctic with Alaska warming twice as fast as the United States; specific, measured temperature increases Increased cloud cover since the year 2000 has led to more precipitation and increased warmth near land or ice surface Winter cloud cover decreased since the early 1980s Decreasing albedo due to melting leads to further warming Habitat Less snow and faster melting are causing summer droughts in forests, wetlands, and lakes Thawing permafrost is destroying wetlands in some areas, while creating new wetlands elsewhere Sea ice loss results in habitat loss for ice-adapted species Sea Ice Widespread glacier retreat Pacific heat inflows affect sea ice retreat Tundra Thinner ice vulnerable to winds Permafrost temperatures have risen by 3.6 F due to increasing air temperature, thickness of snow cover, and duration of snow cover Thawing permafrost damages infrastructure Ocean Decreasing ice volume has led to flux of organic carbon in ocean sea floor Upper ocean stratification increasing due to accelerated hydrological cycles and ice melt Ocean becoming more acidic due to carbon dioxide emissions and melt water Arctic Ocean experiencing enhanced oceanic heat inflows from both the North Atlantic and the North Pacific Habitat Less snow and faster melting are causing summer droughts in forests, wetlands, and lakes

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has inherent limitations: scientists often do not have the generational, geographically, and temporally specific knowledge of local observations, unless their methodologies include TEK, in-depth interviews, or ethnographies, and their methods tend to be reductionist and compartmentalized (Fabricius et al. 2006; Salick and Ross 2009). Much of the information in the assessment reports we reviewed focuses on explaining the physical or biological causes of a particular trend. Scientific knowledge of climate change can generate information about specific levels of change, such as degrees of temperature rise, and the drivers of change, like greenhouse gas emissions, that cannot be observed in TEK. In addition, climate science is steeped in predicting and projecting the future of climate change and its associated effects through computer modeling. Generally, the climate science that appears in assessment reports attempts to portray a precise and measured portrait of climate change within an acceptable range of evidence and agreement among the report authors (see for example Mastrandrea et al. 2010). The categories and nature of change evident in the TEK of climate change in Savoonga and Shaktoolik, Alaska largely corroborates and upholds the climate science found in the assessment reports we reviewed. The TEK of climate change in these villages, however, differs in four important ways and offers a deeper understanding of the local impacts of climate change. First, and consistent with Fabricius et al. (2006), TEK is more attuned to complex social structures in both villages. The climate science in the assessment reports is not designed to generate specific and immediate information regarding the human dimensions of climate change, such as daily behavior, localized subsistence practices, community structure, and mental and emotional welfare (Moller et al. 2004; Salick and Ross 2009; Pearce et al. 2009). Yet these elements are crucial to consider when developing effective adaptation plans. For example, residents of Shaktoolik told us about their nightmares of being dragged into the ocean during severe storms and assessment reports do not include emotional day-to-day, season-to-season community anxieties. TEK includes these concerns with their observations of physical change. Second, TEK is more focused on specific, local environments that relate to a communitys customs and practices (Fabricius et al. 2006; Salick and Ross 2009). Climate science in the assessment reports largely focuses on changes in the Arctic as a whole or distinguishes between terrestrial and marine environments. For example, most hunters in Savoonga who venture out on the ocean notice ocean currents are becoming stronger around their island. No such knowledge appears in climate assessment reports. As such, the scientific community may find these TEK observations informative for new areas of research, especially place-based specific research (see Table 3). TEK can identify geographic gaps in the knowledge of climate change and offers the opportunity for more compelling portrayals of the problem (Fabricius et al. 2006; Salick and Ross 2009). Third, TEK is more current as it is produced from real-time observation. Climate scientists use remote sensing, retrospective analysis, experimental manipulation, and modeling, yet their studies are temporally limited by the academic procedures of funding, peer-review, and publication (Pearce et al. 2009; Gratani et al. 2011). Indigenous peoples do not have these restrictions, and unlike climate scientists, live and interact in the environment that they are studying, creating their own endemic constructions of ecological knowledge on a continual basis (Usher 2000; Oozeva et al. 2004; Huntington et al. 2004). TEK holders in Savoonga, for example, already observe phenomena regarded as projections in the scientific community such as the loss of tundra lakes due to permafrost melt. By validating projections with observations, TEK is a valuable resource for checking the temporal accuracies of climate modeling (Fabricius et al. 2006). Fourth, since TEK is a coupled social-biophysical knowledge system (Berkes 2012), it more tightly weaves physical, biological, and social changes into single observations or one prevailing reality than reductionist science. The subsistence cultures of both communities are inseparable from the biophysical conditions that surround them. For example, discussions about the

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declining presence of sea ice, increased winds, and stronger storms were embedded in discussions about smaller windows of time to hunt, increased risks in hunting, and challenges to their traditional subsistence cultural practices. These changes disrupt their lives. Interviewees commented, for example, that there were not enough days in a year, or similar to Krupnik and Jolly (2002) that the earth was somehow moving faster. The TEK observations of climate change that we gathered are particularly perceptive of biophysical factors related to safety and security of hunting and gathering activities, revealing the acute exposures and vulnerabilities that these communities face given their relationships with a rapidly changing natural environment. The increased intensity of storms, however, is of upmost concern and is commanding much of their attention as life and property are gravely threatened. Shaktoolik is particularly vulnerable to large storms. Much of the discussion in our interviews in this village focused on their exposure to increasing storm intensity and their vulnerability to flooding. These discussions revealed an acute need in Shaktoolik for a road to higher ground to escape storms, a fact that would not be evident in climate science assessment reports. Documenting this knowledge better equips federal and state agencies working with the IRA and City Councils in these villages on adaptation planning. The fact that both the TEK that we collected and the scientific observations we found in assessment reports corroborate, with no apparent conflicts, reinforces our belief that observers of nature, either trained in academic settings, by elders, or through experience, are capable of discerning their environment and noting change (Rosales and Montan 2010). Both types of knowledge share remarkably similar observations of the direction of change in the Arctic, especially the physical changes to the landscape (Moller et al. 2004). These changes, as expressed through TEK, reveal the degree of exposure to climate change in Shaktoolik and Savoonga, and although their observations closely parallel climate science, their impetus for observing is rooted in the desire to sustain their culture, and more urgently, to survive the multiple disruptions created by climate change.

5 Conclusion Since TEK can reach beyond the purview of the climate science reported in assessment reports, TEK and climate science should be given equal credence when developing localscale adaptation plans. By recognizing that both forms of knowledge accentuate and strengthen one another, a more complete understanding of climate change can be achieved (Moller et al. 2004; Salick and Ross 2009; Green and Raygorodetsky 2010; Gratani et al. 2011). This holistic understanding is vital to a mutual and reciprocal development of assessment reports and adaptation strategies (Folke 2004; Fabricius et al. 2006; Green and Raygorodetsky 2010), a process in which all stakeholders equally collaborate and determine actions that address exposures to climate change (Folke 2004; Ford and Furgal 2009; Pearce et al. 2009). We believe that new climate change knowledge co-produced from assessment reports and from TEK offers the best possible avenue for adaptation plans to both preserve cultural diversity while pragmatically addressing the impacts of climate change. Assessment reports are valuable sources of information for decision makers to understand the broad-scale impacts of climatic change and projections of change, but TEK can narrow the geographic sensitivity of that change, augment the cultural sensitivity and perhaps most importantly for the villages in this study, identify the specific needs and the acuteness of those needs to effectively design endemic adaptation strategies.

Climatic Change Acknowledgments We thank the residents of Savoonga and Shaktoolik who welcomed us in to their villages and homes, and to the Tribal Councils for their consent to do this work. We are particularly grateful to Perry Pungowiyi and Carole Sookiayak for their outstanding work in coordinating this project in their villages. Thanks to Emma Kearney, Meredith Kenney, and Elizabeth Atwood for their help with interviews and to Matilda Larson for generating Fig. 1. We thank the reviewers for their close examinations of the manuscript which dramatically improved this publication. This work is funded by an internal grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We dedicate this study to Morris Toolie, Sr. whose knowledge of his landscape lives on.

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