Download Local knowledge - Arctic Frontiers

A Millennium of Changing Environments in
the Godthåbsfjord
-bridging cultures of knowledge
PhD student Ann Eileen Lennert
1
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and Climate Research Centre,
2
1,2,3
Ilisimatusarfik, University of Greenland, 3The Arctic University of Norway, UIT
The environment is under threat from so many directions that it is relevant to look in an interdisciplinary way. It is important to look at a whole spectra of interrelated fields, some obvious and some surprising with their
relevance, when trying to understand environmental variations both in relation to pollution, climate change or just environments in general. Drawing interdisciplinary on social and natural sciences the project explores the
links between variations in past and present sea ice, climate conditions, changing environments and human societies. Bridging cultures of knowledge the project aims to understand the environments in change through the
eyes of the cultural landscapes, local knowledge, archives and together with marine geological history depositions and natural scientific data, reconstruct these lived environments with changing ice patterns, resources and
changing human-environment relations in the Godthåbsfjord . It demonstrates how these interrelated fields can be used as proxies to prolong time series, better monitoring and the importance of how these different
approaches and perspectives supplement each other in the understanding of environments in change. It amplifies the relevance for understanding climate and environments in change within the context of social and cultural
change, changing settlement patterns and mobility, transformations in resource use, and local concerns over the development of large-scale industry.
It is human interactions with nature, there lives that embed the cultural landscapes
that together can be used as a proxy when looking back in time. Different cultures
indicate different environmental setting, as the Norse preferring sea scapes, land for
farming, and hunting of migrating seal at spring, whereas the Thule Culture and their
winter settlements indicate, ice environments and ice margins favorable for hunting on
ice or by kayak. Hunting structures indicate distribution of species and abundance,
Movement and travel route indicate seasonal distribution of animals as caribou,
migration patterns og marine mammals and fish, -these depend on specific
environmental settings. Place names are typonyms, representing a knowledge that
can be mapped in a cartographic space and seen as a basis of comparison to
environmental phenomena's as climate change and environmental variations (Crate et
al, 2009, Lennert, 2012, Lennert et al, 2015, Lennert, 2016a).
Climate variations
Animal diversity
Stressfactors
Oceanography
Proxy
Vegetation
Animal behavior
Time series
movements, migrations, but this knowledge can also contribute with insight of given
environmental settings, environmental variations and oceanographic settings.
Behavioral knowledge of marine species as beluga whales can also contribute with
how
anthropogenic
disturbances
might
influence
certain
species,
how
contaminants together with these might act as a cocktail that together with stress
factors can result fatal impacts on not only the marine animals but also communities
relying on them (Lennert 2012a, Lennert. 2016b)
Contaminants
Monitoring
Local knowledge of animal behavior encompass knowledge of habitats,
Ice distribution
Salinity
Sea temperature
Ecosystems
Tipping Points
Interdisciplinary
Glacier dynamics
Ice patterns
Animal migrations
Melt off
As marine geology, Archaeology represents a
depositional history, indicate environmental settings
and variations. Sedimentation layers can indicate
both warm and favorable periods for growth as well
as periods with cold and storminess. Macrofossils, as
microfossils indicate environmental settings as well
as variations through time. Here insects and plants
being extremely sensitive to change. Bone material
represent specific environmental settings. Together
these two fields contribute with a coupling between
different trophic layers and benthic pelagic systems,
as well as top down and bottom up control.
Furthermore middens can work as archives of species
that indicate climate change and glacier melt water,
as the mussel Mytilus Edulis (Lennert et al. 2016a,
Versteegh et al 2012)
Environmental variations
To properly understand environmental variations through time observations based on
daily interactions with the environments are of importance. Observations of fjords,
coasts and their surroundings back in time. Local knowledge is an important
element in understanding the changes and variations happening not only due to
climate change and environmental variation but also to understand the fate of
pollutants in this complex system. Hunters and communities in the arctic have
through their lives have achieved to retain a unique knowledge, which makes them
natural historians of their own land. Some travel in areas inaccessible to many and
should be acknowledged as an important proxy to understand the interaction between
elements, being natural or non natural in the arctic. Moving through the fjord
knowledge here is shared about ice patterns, sound, glacier variations, taste of the
sea, animal behavior, currents and recourse diversity through time. This knowledge
not only maintained through indigenous life economies but also “modern” economies
built on fisheries, local knowledge generated on communities relying of specific life
sticks or people and scientist who have obtained knowledge through years of
movement in a specific environment. (Lennert, 2016a, Lennert et al, 2016a)
Productivity
Understanding and knowledge of the complex environments seen in Arctic and its
fjord systems only comes after many years of observations and monitoring. Long
times series can be crucial to understand changes seen today, using the past to
understand the present and eventually what scenarios we might see in the future
when speaking of ecosystems, ice patterns, glacier terminus fluctuations,
oceanographic settings among many. Archives encompass a large amount of
historical data and proxies. Logbooks from ships, reports and observations can give a
detailed picture of oceanographic settings, temperatures and ice distribution, trade list
reflect distribution and abundance of different animal species, where they are found,
size, age and among many. Old maps can show ice extent in winter, rivers not seen
today og glacier terminus’s that has varied over time, areal photos from polar
explorers, such as Lauge Koch and Knud Rasmussen as well as from World War II
indicate glacial and ice variation currant in the 1930 warming period. Diaries can be
seen as local knowledge sharing observations, interpretations of the whole spectra of
interrelated fields (Lennert et al 2016b, Bjørk et al. 2012)
Examples of some preliminary results
looking at the 1930 warming;
Fishermen and hunters
dependent
of
marine
animals
are
usually
knowledge
banks.
A
knowledge making them
able to draw the bottom
-Beluga
and
their
behavioral
patterns indicate the 1930 warming alreaddy was
setting its footprints before 1920.
topography
of
an
area, as if measured by
ships.
Knowledge
of
distribution of fish and
variations of these in
relation to environmental
settings. how change of
sea currents, fresh water
input from glaciers or
disturbance of predators
alter de distribution is a
imperative, knowledge, not
only
to
understand
variations happening in the
past, these seen today but
also in relation to industry,
mining, contaminants ,
regulations, quotas and
anthropogenic disturbances of other kinds (Hall,
2013, Lennert et al 2016)
whales
-Areal photos show glaciers reteated further
behind than today in 1930.
-Trade lists show how Belugas move further
north beginning 1920.
-Old reports and diaries show an alternation of
animals and sea ice before 1920.
-Freeze degree model made from photos and
satelite images (among other proxies) shows that
only minor changes in surface water temp. and air
temp. alter the extent of the winter ice edge in the
Godthåbsfjord dramtically..
-Local knowledge and settlements indicate a
change of both distribution of whales, and marine
animals.
-Beluga whales movement indicate sea currents
of the Godthåbsfjord and how these change
Contact:
Email:
Phone:
Ann Eileen Lennert
Environmental Anthropologist
Greenland Institute of Natural Resources and
Climate Research Centre
anle@natur.gl
+4790554526
References: Bjørk et al. 2012, An aerial view of 80 years of climate-related glacier fluctuations in southeast Greenland , NATURE GEOSCIENCE , VOL 5 , JUNE 2012, Hall, 2013 Recruiting the Visual: Knowing Our CommonPlace Towards an Encyclopedia of Local
Knowledge , PhD Thesis, Lennert 2012, Settlement patterns in the Godthåbsfjord and the interactions between humans and ice (985-1350 A.D), Master thesis, Ilisimatusarfik & Greenland Climate Research Center., Lennert et al, 2015 Fangsthistorier oplevet og
fortalt ud fra kulturlandskaberne: En rejse gennem tid og klimavariationer, Tidsskriftet Grønland 3/2015, Lennert, 2016a, What happens when the ice melts? Belugas, contaminants, ecosystems and human communities in the complexity of global change., Marine
Pollution Bulletin, submittet,, 2016b, Place, movement and cultural landscapes in two northern worlds , Polar Record, submittet, Lennert et al 2016a, Back to the future –interrelated ways of understanding environmental variations in the face of climate change, in
prep, Lennert et al. 2016b, 1930 warming, signals from archive studies and local knowledge –do we see the same?, in prep, Versteegh et al 2012 ,Oxygen isotope ratios in the shell of Mytilus edulis: archives of glacier meltwater in Greenland?, Biogeosciences, 9,
5231–5241.