Grantee Research Project Results

2015 Progress Report: Assessment, Monitoring and Adaptation To Food and Water Security Threats to the Sustainability of Arctic Remote Alaska Native Villages

EPA Grant Number: R835597
Title: Assessment, Monitoring and Adaptation To Food and Water Security Threats to the Sustainability of Arctic Remote Alaska Native Villages
Investigators: Berner, James E. , Brubaker, Michael
Institution: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2018 (Extended to June 30, 2019)
Project Period Covered by this Report: July 1, 2014 through June 30,2015
Project Amount: $888,282
RFA: Science for Sustainable and Healthy Tribes (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Tribal Environmental Health Research , Human Health

Objective:

Establish the Rural Alaska Monitoring Program (RAMP), a community-based, resident-operated environmental monitoring program in the Bering Strait region of northwest Alaska.

Progress Summary:

Prepared presentations of EPA grant-funded activities to tribal leaders, tribal environmental workers, state and federal wildlife agency personnel, nationwide EPA webinar, presentations to academic partners and circumpolar environmental health colleagues at international conferences.
Developed a data management system, linked with an archive and specimen management system for all RAMP specimens, utilizing the expertise and specimen storage facilities of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Library.
Developed training materials, and conducted bio-sampling training for community residents in the Bering Strait region.
Developed contracts and agreements with collaborators at the University of Alaska and Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the State of Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation Laboratory for key analytic services with samples obtained by community residents.
Completed the QAPP for all lab procedures and data management.
Developed a Memorandum of Agreement for regional Project Management functions with the regional Alaska Native Corporation in Nome, the Kawerak Corporation.
Obtained permission to collect sea mammal blood samples on filter paper strips, from subsistence-killed sea mammals, from NOAA, under the authority of an existing permit issued to Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Initiated collection of filter paper blood specimens from sea mammals, after obtaining a permit, in the late summer of 2015, and initiated mosquito specimen collections starting in early June of 2015.

Future Activities:

Target goal is 100 sea mammal blood specimens this project year, all tested for zoonotic pathogens and total blood mercury, 200 land mammal blood specimens tested for zoonotic pathogens and blood mercury.
Testing of marine bivalves for saxitoxin, domoic acid and organic contaminants from four sites on the Bering and Chukchi Sea coast during the next performance year.
Testing for Francisella tularensis of adult and larval mosquitos from coastal communities in the Bering Strait region at the beginning, middle and end of the mosquito season.
Community source water sampling for N, P, dissolved O₂, pH, DOC, microcystin and nodularins, total and organic mercury at the beginning, middle and end of the ice-free season, in coastal communities in northwest Alaska.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 20 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Zoonotic, bivalve, pathogen, Francisella tularensis, DOC (dissolved organic carbon), N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus), pH

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.