You are here:
IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON HEALTH BENEFITS OF A TRIBAL ALASKAN RESOURCE:INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE WITH RISK ASSESSMENT THROUGH LOCAL MONITORING
Impact/Purpose:
It is our hypothesis that there are predictable links between climatic stress factors and shifts in climatic regimes, berry fruit composition, and the preventative/therapeutic value of berries to combat diabetes and other complications of metabolic syndrome. We also expect that tribal community approaches to mitigating health risks through dietary berries will be conditioned by community-held risk perceptions, local tribal knowledge, and uncertainties regarding global climate change impacts on these valued native resources. We propose a parallel, integrated, simultaneous research approach to: 1) provide baseline assessment of the bioactivity (health risk mitigation properties) of berry resources as influenced by climatic stress factors relevant to global climate change, via cross-comparison of two Alaska tribal communities characterized by inherently different climatic regimes; and 2) assess local traditional knowledge and risk perceptions regarding community health, berries, and climate change, and integrate these with biophysical findings for informed local health related decision-making.
Description:
Within Alaska Native communities, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has long held that wild indigenous berries are a health-promoting, life-sustaining resource. Modern science has recently elucidated specific health-protective, adaptogenic properties of the natural components within berry fruits. This project will integrate biological scientific data relevant to wild berry bioactive properties with community perceptions of risk under the threat of global climate change and encroachment on the habitat of the berry resources.