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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

By
Hajo Eicken ,
Igor Krupnik ,
Winton Weyapuk  and
Matthew L. Druckenmiller
Edited by
Marie Roué ,
Douglas Nakashima  and
Igor Krupnik
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
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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.

Keywords

sea icecoastal erosionfreeze-upbreak-upBering Straitcommunity-based monitoringHerbert AnungazukAlfred Bailey
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

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