Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T01:46:28.457Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Learning about Sea Ice from the Kifikmiut: A Decade of Ice Seasons at Wales, Alaska, 2006-2016

from Part I - From Practice to Principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2022

Marie Roué
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Douglas Nakashima
Affiliation:
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), France
Igor Krupnik
Affiliation:
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

In recent years, reductions in Arctic sea ice extent and thickness have been most pronounced in the Pacific Arctic sector. In addition to major losses of summer ice in the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea ice cover transitioned from above-normal winter ice extent to near complete absence of sea ice in winter in a few years. We highlight observations and findings by Kifikmiut sea-ice experts from the community of Wales in the Bering Strait, Alaska. These observations and the Indigenous knowledge in which they are embedded provide insights into sea-ice change from the perspective of ice users intimately familiar with the cultural landscape of sea ice and its important role in the coastal environment. Our collaborator, the late Winton Weyapuk, Jr., in particular, was instrumental in helping establish a coastal community Indigenous observer network in 2006 during the International Polar Year that radiated out from Wales and continues to grow and thrive. We compare the seasonal sea-ice cycle based on Mr. Weyapuk’s observations for the ice seasons of 2006/07 and 2015/16, illustrating the importance of sea ice for coastal Alaska communities and discussing key aspects of ice-cover demise and its impacts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Resilience through Knowledge Co-Production
Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Global Environmental Change
, pp. 43 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, A. M. 1933. A cruise of the “Bear”. Natural History, 3(5): 497510.Google Scholar
Bailey, A. M. 1943. The birds of Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. Proceedings of the Colorado Museum of Natural History, 18(1).Google Scholar
Bailey, A. M. 1971. Field work of a museum naturalist. Museum Pictorial 22. Denver, CO: Denver Museum of Natural History.Google Scholar
Bogoslovskaya, L. S. and Krupnik, I. (eds.) 2013. Nashi L’dy, Snega i Vetry [Our Ice, Snow and Winds.] Indigenous and Academic Knowledge on Ice-Scapes and Climate of Eastern Chukotka. Moscow: Russian Heritage Institute.Google Scholar
Burnham, J. B. 1929. The Rim of Mystery: A Hunter’s Wandering in Unknown Siberian Asia. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons.Google Scholar
Calder, J., Eicken, H. and Overland, J. 2011. The sea ice outlook. In Krupnik, I., Allison, I., Bell, R., Cutler, P., Hik, D., López-Martínez, J., Rachold, V., Sarukhanian, E. and Summerhayes, C. (eds.) Understanding Earth’s Polar Challenges: International Polar Year 2007–2008. Rovaniemi: University of the Arctic and Edmonton: CCI Press, pp. 405410.Google Scholar
Comiso, J. C. 2017. Bootstrap Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS, Version 3. 1978–1979. Boulder, CO: NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. http://dx.doi.org/10.5067/7Q8HCCWS4I0RGoogle Scholar
Cornwall, W. 2019. Vanishing Bering Sea ice poses climate puzzle. Science, 364(6441): 616617. http://DOI.org/10.1126/science.364.6441.616Google Scholar
Eerkes-Medrano, L., Atkinson, D. E., Eicken, H., Nayokpuk, B., Sookiayak, H., Ungott, E. and Weyapuk, Jr., W. 2017. Slush-ice berm formation on the west coast of Alaska. Arctic, 70(2): 190202. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4644CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eicken, H. 2010. Indigenous knowledge and sea ice science: What can we learn from Indigenous ice users? In Krupnik, I., Aporta, C., Gearheard, S., Laidler, G. J. and Kielsen Holm, L. (eds.) SIKU: Knowing Our Ice. Documenting Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 357376.Google Scholar
Eicken, H. 2013. Arctic sea ice needs better forecasts. Nature, 497: 431433. https://doi.org/10.1038/497431aCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eicken, H., Lovecraft, A. L. and Druckenmiller, M. L. 2009. Sea-ice system services: A framework to help identify and meet information needs relevant for Arctic observing networks. Arctic, 62(2): 119136. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic126CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eicken, H., Hufford, G., Metcalf, V., Moore, S., Overland, J. and Wiggins, H. 2011. Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO). In Krupnik, I., Allison, I., Bell, R., Cutler, P., Hik, D., López-Martínez, J., Rachold, V., Sarukhanian, E. and Summerhayes, C. (eds.) Understanding Earth’s Polar Challenges: International Polar Year 2007–2008. Rovaniemi: University of the Arctic and Edmonton: CCI Press, pp. 405410.Google Scholar
Eicken, H., Kaufman, M., Krupnik, I., Pulsifer, P., Apangalook, L., Apangalook, P., Weyapuk, Jr., W. and Leavitt, J. 2014. A framework and database for community sea ice observations in a changing Arctic: An Alaskan prototype for multiple users. Polar Geography, 37(1): 527. https://doi.org/10.1080/1088937X.2013.873090Google Scholar
Fox, S. 2002. These are things that are really happening: Inuit perspectives on the evidence and impacts of climate change in Nunavut. In Krupnik, I. and Jolly, D. (eds.) The Earth Is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change. Fairbanks, AK: ARCUS, pp. 1253.Google Scholar
Gearheard (Fox), S., Holm, L. K., Huntington, H. P., Leavitt, J. M. and Mahoney, A. R. (eds.) 2013. The Meaning of Ice. People and Sea Ice in Three Arctic Communities. Hanover, NH: International Polar Institute.Google Scholar
Gearheard (Fox), S., Matumeak, W., Angutikjuaq, I., Maslanik, J., Huntington, H. P., Leavitt, J., Kagak, D. M., Tigullaraq, G. and Barry, R. G. 2006. “It’s not that simple”: A collaborative comparison of sea ice environments, their uses, observed changes, and adaptations in Barrow, Alaska, USA, and Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada. Ambio, 35: 203211. https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2006)35[203:INTSAC]2.0.CO;2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, C. J., Huntington, H. P., Brewster, K., Eicken, H., Norton, D. W. and Glenn, R. 2004. Observations on shorefast ice dynamics in Arctic Alaska and the responses of the Iñupiat hunting community. Arctic, 57(4): 363374. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic514Google Scholar
Johnson, M. and Eicken, H. 2016. Estimating Arctic sea-ice freeze-up and break-up from the satellite record: A comparison of different approaches in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Elementa, 4: 124. http://doi.org/10.12952/journal.elementa.000124.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. 2000. Native perspectives on the climate and sea-ice change. In Huntington, H. P. (ed.) Impacts of Changes in Sea Ice and Other Environmental Parameters in the Arctic. Background report to the international Arctic sea-ice change workshop. Washington, DC: Marine Mammal Commission, pp. 614.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. 2002. Watching ice and weather our way: Some lessons from Yupik observations of sea ice and weather on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. In Krupnik, I. and Jolly, D. (eds.) The Earth Is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change. Fairbanks, AK: ARCUS, pp. 156199Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. 2009. “The way we see it coming”: Building the legacy of Indigenous observations in IPY 2007-2008. In Krupnik, I., Lang, M. and Miller, S. (eds.) Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, pp. 129142.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. 2017. Winton Weyapuk, Jr., 1950–2016: Naturalist, observer and community pillar. Arctic Studies Center Newsletter, 24: 6667.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I., and Jolly, D. (eds.) 2002. The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change. Fairbanks, AK: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I. and Ray, G. C. 2007. Pacific walrus, Indigenous hunters, and climate change: Bridging scientific and Indigenous knowledge. Deep-Sea Research, Part II, 54: 29462957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2007.08.011Google Scholar
Krupnik, I., Aporta, C., Gearheard, S., Laidler, G. and Holm, L. K. (eds.) 2010a. SIKU: Knowing Our Ice. Documenting Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Krupnik, I., Apangalook, L., and Apangalook, P. 2010b. “It’s cold, but not cold enough”: Observing ice and climate change in Gambell, Alaska, in IPY 2007–2008 and beyond. In Krupnik, I., Aporta, C., Gearheard, S., Laidler, G. and Holm, L. K. (eds.) SIKU: Knowing Our Ice. Documenting Inuit Sea Ice Knowledge and Use. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 81–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8587-0_4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laidler, G. J. 2006. Inuit and scientific perspectives on the relationships between sea ice and climate change: An ideal complement? Climatic Change, 78: 407444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584–006-9064-zCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laidler, G. J. and Elee, P. 2008. Human geographies of sea ice: Freeze/thaw processes around Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada. Polar Record, 44(228): 5176. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247407007061CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laidler, G. J. and Ikummaq, T. 2008. Human geographies of sea ice: Freeze/thaw processes around Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada. Polar Record, 44(229): 127153. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247407007152CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopp Kittredge, E. L. and Lopp, W. T. 2001. Ice Window: Letters from a Bering Strait Village. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, M., Arragutainaq, L. and Novalinga, Z. (compilers). 1997. Voices from the Bay: Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Inuit and Cree in the Hudson Bay Bioregion. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Arctic Resources Committee.Google Scholar
Metcalf, V. and Krupnik, I. (eds.) 2003. Pacific Walrus: Conserving Our Culture through Traditional Management. Report produced by Eskimo Walrus Commission, Kawerak, Inc. under the grant from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Section 119, Cooperative Agreement #701813J506. Alaska: Eskimo Walrus Commission.Google Scholar
Metcalf, V. and Robards, M. 2008. Sustaining a healthy human-walrus relationship in a dynamic environment: Challenges for co-management. Ecological Applications, 18(2): 148156. https://doi.org/10.1890/06-0642.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Snow and Ice Data Center. 2019. Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis. Online resource. https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/2019/09/arctic-sea-ice-reaches-second-lowest-minimum-in-satellite-record/ (retrieved 18 April 2020).Google Scholar
Nelson, R. K. 1969. Hunters of the Northern Ice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Oozeva, C., Noongwook, C., Noongwook, G., Alowa, C. and Krupnik, I. 2004. Watching Ice and Weather Our Way/Sikumengllu Eslamengllu Esghapalleghput. Washington, DC: Arctic Studies Center.Google Scholar
PIOMAS. 2020. Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) Arctic sea ice volume reanalysis, http://psc.apl.uw.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/schweiger/ice_volume/BPIOMASIceVolumeAprSepCurrent.png. (accessed on April 18, 2020)Google Scholar
Stroeve, J., Serreze, M., Drobot, S., Gearheard, S., Holland, M., Maslanik, J., Meier, W. and Scambos, T. 2008. Arctic sea ice extent plummets in 2007. Eos, 89(2): 1320. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008EO020001Google Scholar
Taylor, P. C., Maslowski, W., Perlwitz, J. and Wuebbles, D. J. 2017. Arctic changes and their effects on Alaska and the rest of the United States. In Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment Vol. 1. Washington, DC: U.S. Global Change Research Program, pp. 303332, doi: 10.7930/J00863GKGoogle Scholar
Weyapuk, Jr., W. and Krupnik, I. (compilers). 2012. Kingikmi Sigum Qanuq Ilitaavut: Wales Inupiaq Sea Ice Dictionary. Washington, DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution; available at https://jukebox.uaf.edu/site7/sites/default/files/documents/Preserving-our-Knowledge--Wales-Dictionary.pdfGoogle Scholar
Worby, A. P. and Eicken, H. 2009. Ship-based ice observation programs. In Eicken, H., Gradinger, R., Salganek, M., Shirasawa, K., Perovich, D. and Leppäranta, M. (eds.) Field Techniques for Sea-Ice Research. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, pp. 365381.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×