Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

http://www.web.uvic.ca/~darimont/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Raymond-et-al-2010-integrating-local-and-scientific-knowledge.pdf

Integrating local and scientific knowledge for environmental management

Recent climate change in the Arctic and its impact on contaminant pathways and interpretation of temporal trend data.

Ecosystem dynamics of the Pacific-influenced Northern Bering and Chukchi Seas in the Amerasian Arctic

Arctic sea ice declined rapidly to unprecedented low extents in the summer of 2007, raising concern that the Arctic may be on the verge of a fundamental transition toward a seasonal ice cover.

Arctic sea ice extent typically attains a seasonal maximum in March and minimum in September. Over the course of the modern satellite record (1979 to present), sea ice extent has declined significantly in all months, with the decline being most pronounced in September. By mid-July 2007, it was clear that a new record low would be set during the summer of 2007.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2008EO020001

Arctic Sea Ice Extent Plummets in 2007

Although shorefast sea ice forms a platform that facilitates travel, camping, and hunting by Inupiat subsistence hunters and fishers in the western Arctic, the nearshore sea-ice zone remains an unforgiving and dynamic environment. Traditional hunters constantly hone site-specific experiences and skills with which to optimize the reward-to-risk ratio inherent in operating from this coastal ice. Nearshore ice conditions nevertheless can change suddenly, endangering even the most experienced subsistence hunters. This study examines two (of several) 20th-century events, 40 years apart, in which shorefast ice failed, threatening Inupiat whale hunters with loss of confidence, livelihood, and life. These events differed in character. In one event, the shorefast ice was "crushed" by moving ice floes. In the other, the shorefast ice broke free of land. Our examination focuses on the relationship of subsistence hunters to the ice, the environmental causes of ice failures, the evolving technology for predicting ice behavior, and the longer-term implications of global change for this system. The complexity of geophysical processes underlying coastal ice behavior makes ice failures unpredictable. Thus, hunters must assume and manage risk. The variable and uncertain environment to which whale hunters are accustomed has produced an inherent flexibility that has helped them adapt to new conditions and will continue to do so in the future.

/pdf/observations-on-shorefast-ice-dynamics-in-arctic-alaska-and-42565mm3cw.pdf

Observations on Shorefast Ice Dynamics in Arctic Alaska and the Responses of the Iñupiat Hunting Community

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and the information and insights it offers to natural resource research and management have been given much attention in recent years. On the practical question of how TEK is accessed and used together with scientific knowledge, most work to date has examined documentation and methods of recording and disseminating information. Relatively little has been done regarding exchanges between scientific and traditional knowledge. This paper examines three workshop settings in which such exchanges were intended outcomes. The Barrow Symposium on Sea Ice, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Program Synthesis/Information Workshops, and the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee illuminate certain features of the preparation, format, and context of workshops or series of workshops and their eventual outcomes and influence. The examples show the importance of long-term relationships among participants and thorough preparation before the actual workshop. Further research should look more systematically at the factors that influence the success of a given workshop and the various ways in which participants perceive success.

Observations on the workshop as a means of improving communication between holders of traditional and scientific knowledge.

By March each year, coast-influenced sea ice in Alaska's northern Chukchi Sea consists of the shorefast ice itself plus ice floes moving in a zone that extends from immediately beyond the shorefast ice to coherent pack ice, some 100 km farther offshore. Because westward-drifting polar pack ice encounters fewer landmasses (and less resistance from them) once it passes Point Barrow, a semipermanent polynya or flaw zone dominates coastal ice in this region. Inupiat residents use open water in flaw leads to hunt migrating bowhead whales from mid-April to early June. Although Inupiat hunters grasp the nature and importance of ice in motion beyond their horizon, the flaw zone has received less scientific attention than either shorefast ice or polar pack ice farther offshore. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery is a form of remote sensing recently made available that allows us to address ice movement at a spatial scale familiar to traditional hunters. SAR-tracked ice movements differed between 2000 and 2001, illustrating contrasts between adverse and optimal conditions for spring whaling at Barrow. Case studies of ice-floe accelerations in the two contrasting seasons suggest that many variables influence ice motion. These include weather, seafloor topography, currents, sea-level changes, and events that occurred earlier during an annual accretion of ice. Adequate prediction of threats to ice integrity in the northern Chukchi Sea will require adjustments of our current concepts, including 1) recognizing the pervasive influence of the flaw zone; 2) replacing a focus on vessel safety in ice-dominated waters with an emphasis on ice integrity in high-energy environments; and 3) chronicling ice motions through coordinated ground observation and remote sensing of March-June events in future field studies.

https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic57-4-347.pdf

Drift Velocities of Ice Floes in Alaska's Northern Chukchi Sea Flaw Zone : Determinants of Success by Spring Subsistence Whalers in 2000 and 2001

Live mussels attached to fresh laminarioid brown algae, all fastened to clusters of pebbles and small cobbles, were repeatedly cast ashore by autumn storms at Barrow, Alaska, in the 1990s. Specimens of Laminaria saccharina and L. solidungula shorten by 100 km a 500 km gap (Peard Bay to Stefansson Sound) between previously known concentrations of these kelp species. For the genus Mytilus , a 1600 km gap in fully documented locations existed between Kivalina in the southern Chukchi Sea and the Mackenzie River delta. Barrow specimens were identified using a mitochondrial DNA marker as M. trossulus , an identity consistent with dispersal from the Pacific-Bering side of the Arctic. Live mussels and macroalgae were neither washed up by storms nor collected by active biological sampling during extensive benthic surveys at Barrow in 1948-50. We cannot interpret the current presence of these bivalves and macrophytes as Arctic range extensions due to warming, similar to those manifested by the tree line in terrestrial systems and by Pacific salmon in marine environments. Supplemental information and critical evaluation of survey strategies and rationales indicate that changes in sea temperatures are an unlikely cause. Alternative explanations focus on past seafloor disturbances, dispersal from marine or estuarine refugia, and effects of predators on colonists. This review suggests refining some interpretations of environmental change that are based on the extensive resource of Cenozoic fossils of Arctic molluscs.

https://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic56-4-391.pdf

A Review of Apparent 20th Century Changes in the Presence of Mussels ( Mytilus trossulus ) and Macroalgae in Arctic Alaska, and of Historical and Paleontological Evidence Used to Relate Mollusc Distributions to Climate Change

A Barrow Symposium on Sea Ice (BSSI) was held in early winter 2000. The National Science Foundation (U.S.) funded this symposium as the keystone event in a project designed to ally traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) with formal ice research and remote sensing. The goal of the project was to stimulate substantive interactions between scientists and technicians who study sea ice on one hand, and Inupiat Eskimos (primarily whaling captains and their crews) who use the ice routinely for travel, camping, and hunting, on the other. From different perspectives, at different scales, and for different purposes, the two groups have accumulated extensive knowledge of ice characteristics and dynamics. We evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the workshop format as a means of exchanging information between scientific and traditional knowledge.... To continue to develop the interactions and shared purposes that characterized the BSSI, a core group of participants needs to meet periodically to review progress on sea ice research in the region, and to seek ways to promote further collaboration between ice observers from the subsistence community and scientists. Research on sea ice appears likely to continue to flourish near Barrow. Both whalers and scientists are eager to share information and insights. Facilitating that exchange is not a trivial task. To be successful in the long run, the promising start made by the BSSI needs to be followed up with refinements in collaborative field research, as well as by regular opportunities for scientists and whalers to learn from one another.

https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/download/63837/47772

David W. Norton

Papers

Observations on Shorefast Ice Dynamics in Arctic Alaska and the Responses of the Iñupiat Hunting Community

Observations on the workshop as a means of improving communication between holders of traditional and scientific knowledge.

Drift Velocities of Ice Floes in Alaska's Northern Chukchi Sea Flaw Zone : Determinants of Success by Spring Subsistence Whalers in 2000 and 2001

A Review of Apparent 20th Century Changes in the Presence of Mussels ( Mytilus trossulus ) and Macroalgae in Arctic Alaska, and of Historical and Paleontological Evidence Used to Relate Mollusc Distributions to Climate Change

The Barrow Symposium on Sea Ice, 2000: Evaluation of One Means of Exchanging Information between Subsistence Whalers and Scientists