Achievement

IGERT trainees, postdocs, and faculty have collaborated with Alaskan indigenous hunters to document the effects of climate change on subsistence opportunities. Based on their observations and experience, village hunters defined the climate change impacts on key subsistence resources as input to suite of indigenous rule-based models. Analogous models were developed from peer-reviewed western science. In general, indigenous hunters had better understanding of climate-change impacts on animal location and hunter access to these locations, whereas western science had better understanding of wildlife population dynamics. An integration of these two knowledge systems could substantially improve the basis for sustainable management of wildlife for conservation and societal goals.