Arctic Ecosystems and Human Adaptations

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Arctic Ecosystems and Human Adaptations

• Rick Davis
• Bryn Mawr College

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Franz Boas

• Countered excesses of evolutionists
• identified as Historical Particularist
• founded academic anthropology in US
• four field approach
• rejected geographical determinism
• The Central Eskimo, 1888 (Baffin Island)
• culture primary to environment
• Study of cognized environment

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Terrestrial Arctic Ecosystem Characteristics

• Relatively low biomass
• Low temperature regime (warmest month
• lt 500f)
• Short growing season ( 2 months)
• Nutrient poor soils (permafrost) slow
  decomposition
• Low Precipitation like a desert

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Arctic Fauna

• Regional species diversity relatively low
  individual species populations large
• Decadal Fluctuation in animal population sizes
• Migration common

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Human Adaptive Requirements

• Pronounced annual temperature fluctuations
• clothing
• housing
• Primary dependence on animals or imported foods
• Storage
• Coping with instability variation in abundance

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More on Cultural AdaptationsHunters Gatherers

• Hunting technology well developed
• Hunting and Gathering peoples generally in
  collecting rather than foraging mode (Binford
  1980)
• Transport a limiting factor
• Dog sleds
• Skis, snowshoes

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Industrial and Mercantile Societies in the Arctic

• A History of resource extraction
• Furs (Russians and Sea Otters)
• Whales (Baleen and Oil)
• Minerals (Gold)
• Energy resources (Oil)
• In the subarctic Timber
• Defense

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First Peoples to the Arctic

• Arctic environments of Europe and Asia inhabited
  by the Middle Paleolithic (beginning 200,000
  years ago)
• Migration to North America by approximately
  15,000 years ago
• Hunting technology well developed and frequently
  combined marine and terrestrial resources

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Patterned ground on the Tundra
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Whittaker Classification
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Maritime Arctic Ecosystems

• Large marine mammals with large populations
• Short food chains
• e.g. Baleen whales, sea birds feed on plankton
• High productivity in areas of turbulence and
  upwelling
• Growth and reproductive rates relatively low

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Bering Sea Productivity
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Sockeye Salmon Harvest in Alaska 1965 - 2001
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Biomes
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Beringia at 18,000 B.P.
Arctic Environments Subject to Change!
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A Tropical Primate above the Arctic Circle?
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Human Biology in the Arctic

• Problems of Thermoregulation
• Bergmans and Allens Rules
• Increased Basal Metabolic Rate
• Non shivering thermogenesis (brown adipose tissue
• Vasoconstriction (maintence of body core
  temperature)
• Cold induced vasodilation (hunting response)
• But thermoreg is still primarily cultural!

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Alaska Native Languages
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Indigenous Peoples of Alaska
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The Princess and The Haida
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Yupik Doll Maker
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Contemporary Commercial Fishing

• Important Variables
• Technology
• Capital
• Markets
• Social Organization
• Ideology
• (Sounds like culture, doesnt it?)

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Gill Netting
12,000
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Stern Trawler 290,000
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Factory stern trawler (twin trawl) Length
overall 64 metres Gross tonnage 1970 M/T Main
engine 3340 hp Crew 36 Freezing hold capacity 550
M/T Fish meal hold 160 M/T
Millions and Millions
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Stern Trawler Fleet
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Emptying Crabpots on the Bering Sea
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Trawler Net with Bycatch
A Surimi line in Unalaska
Industrial Production for Far-away Markets
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Cascade Hypothesis
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Ecosystem Concept

• Three main components (Moran)
• Energy
• Matter
• Information
• Fundamental Functions (Kormondy)
• moving of energy
• moving of nutrients

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Ecosystem Definition

• E.P. Odum Any unit that includes all of the
  organisms in a given area interacting with the
  physical environment so that a flow of energy
  leads to clearly defined trophic structure,
  biotic diversity, and material cycles is an
  ecological system or ecosystem.

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Components of Ecosystems
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Arctic National Wildlife Preserve
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Porcupine Caribou Herd