Kassam Karim-Aly S, Bernardo Joseph
Department of Natural Resources and the Environment and American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program Cornell University Ithaca NY USA.
Department of Biology Texas A&M University College Station TX USA.
Geohealth. 2022 Oct 18;6(10):e2022GH000614. doi: 10.1029/2022GH000614. eCollection 2022 Oct.
Ecological calendars are knowledge systems based on close observation of one's habitat to measure and give meaning to time, thereby providing anticipatory capacity for livelihood activities and contributing to food sovereignty. They rely upon seasonal indicators that integrate biophysical and ecological phenomena (e.g., first snowfall, last frost, blossoming of a tree species; seasonal appearance of an animal or plant) with locally grounded cultural meaning and value systems. These context-specific relationships have enabled Indigenous and rural societies to anticipate weather and other seasonal processes in their environment. However, anthropogenic climate change could undermine ecological calendars due to adverse impacts on specific indicators species, but this issue remains unexplored. We address this knowledge gap by examining how anthropogenic climate change might affect selected species (birds, fish, and mammals) that are seasonal and key to Indigenous food systems in two Western Arctic communities. We leverage existing dietary animal datasets to which we apply a novel methodology for assessing organismal vulnerability to climate change. The methodology uses intrinsic species traits such as physiological tolerances, genetic variability, and life history traits to generate an empirical and integrative assessment of vulnerability for any given species. Subsequently, an aggregate view of vulnerability across calendar species is achieved through comparative statistical analysis across species both within and between communities. This exercise permits the first quantitative assessment of the continued relevance and effective use of an ecological calendar, thus demonstrating that food sovereignty and livelihood security is enhanced by biodiversity of indicator species.
生态日历是基于对栖息地的密切观察来衡量时间并赋予其意义的知识体系，从而为生计活动提供预期能力并促进粮食主权。它们依赖于将生物物理和生态现象（例如，初雪、终霜、某树种开花；动植物的季节性出现）与当地的文化意义和价值体系相结合的季节性指标。这些特定情境的关系使土著和农村社会能够预测其环境中的天气和其他季节性变化。然而，人为气候变化可能会因对特定指示物种产生不利影响而破坏生态日历，但这个问题仍未得到探讨。我们通过研究人为气候变化如何影响两个北极西部社区中对土著食物系统具有季节性且至关重要的选定物种（鸟类、鱼类和哺乳动物）来填补这一知识空白。我们利用现有的饮食动物数据集，并应用一种新颖的方法来评估生物体对气候变化的脆弱性。该方法使用诸如生理耐受性、遗传变异性和生活史特征等物种内在特征，对任何给定物种的脆弱性进行实证和综合评估。随后，通过对社区内部和社区之间的物种进行比较统计分析，得出日历物种脆弱性的总体观点。这项工作允许对生态日历的持续相关性和有效使用进行首次定量评估，从而表明指示物种的生物多样性可增强粮食主权和生计安全。
