Food Security Pillar
Understanding food security and choice in the context of social, economic, and environmental change
Edward Corp
Food Security & Climate Change
We explore how changes in the physical environment due to a warming Arctic have influenced the harvesting, gathering, and sharing of traditional food sources in coastal Arctic communities. How do the impacts vary across places from the far north to southwest Alaska? How is nutrition and food security affected by community level changes in income, employment, climate-induced migration, and communication infrastructure?
Andy Baltensperger
Migration, Food Availability, & Choice
We also hypothesize that a switch to less traditional food may increase the probability of migration, which in turn may increase the likelihood of dietary change. Climate-induced migration impacts long-run resource access by diminishing social networks, disrupting Indigenous traditional knowledge about environmental change adaptation, and weakening the resilience of food systems. These social changes may have greater impacts on the availability, accessibility and convenience of traditional foods, than the environmental changes themselves.
Income, Employment, Economic Shocks, & Dietary Choice
To test hypotheses and to explore related questions we will use a combination of key informant interviews, focus groups, survey data, and decision-making exercises. Findings from the different methods will be synthesized to address related research questions and to better understand the types of policies that support food security and mitigate against dietary transitions associated with poor nutrition and associated chronic diseases.
Davin Holen
Produce Species Distribution Models for Subsistence Berry-Producing Plants
Climate and environmental change may also alter the spatial distribution of critical subsistence resources such as wild berries. To estimate the effect of these changes, we will model the distribution of berry species across the landscape by combining habitat characteristics with known occurrences of berry plants. In doing so, we will estimate locations where we might expect to find berries now, and under varied climate scenarios. We will produce accessible maps of these modeled berry distribution patterns and share with communities to help them plan for and adapt to future changes.
