Reappraisal of the historical myopia epidemic in native Arctic communities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos J Rozema ◽  
Charles Boulet ◽  
Yuval Cohen ◽  
William K Stell ◽  
Luciano Iribarren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Communities

scholarly journals ARKTISKE FOLK SOM STATISTER OG AKTØRER PÅ DEN GLOBALE SCENE

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Sejersen
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Extreme Pressure ◽  
Political Work ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
Arctic Communities ◽  
The Right

Frank Sejersen: Arctic people as by-standers and actors at the global stage For centuries, the indigenous peoples of the Arctic have been perceived as isolated from the rest of the world. The article argues that secluded Arctic communities do not exist and that Arctic peoples are integrated into numerous political, cultural and economic relations of a global extent. The pre-colonial inter-continental trade between Siberia and Alaska and the increased militarization the whole circumpolar region are but two examples. Throughout history, indigenous peoples of the Arctic have been players on the global stage. Today, this position has been strengthened because political work on this stage is imperative in order to secure the welfare and possibilities of local Arctic communities. To mention an example, Arctic peoples’ hunting activities have been under extreme pressure from the anti-harvesting movement. The anti-harvesting organizations run campaigns to ban hunting and stop the trade with products from whales, seals and furbearing animals. Thus, political and cultural processes far from the homeland of Arctic peoples, have consequences for the daily life of many Arctic families. The global stage has become an important comerstone in indigenous peoples’ strive to gain more control over their own future. The right to trade, development and self-determination are some of the rights they claim.

scholarly journals Patterns of Fish and Whale Consumption in Relation to Methylmercury in Hair among Residents of Western Canadian Arctic Communities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Victoria Walker ◽  
Yuan Yuan ◽  
Safwat Girgis ◽  
Karen J. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Inductively Coupled Plasma ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Inductively Coupled ◽  
Hair Samples ◽  
Plasma Mass Spectrometry ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Arctic Communities ◽  
Fort Mcpherson

Abstract Background: Methylmercury contamination of the environment represents a substantial environmental health concern. Human exposure to methylmercury occurs primarily through consumption of fish and marine mammals. Heavily exposed subgroups include sport or subsistence fishers residing in Arctic communities. We aimed to estimate the association of fish/whale consumption patterns of Canadian Arctic subsistence fishers with the internal dose of methylmercury as measured in hair. Methods: This research was conducted within ongoing community projects led by the CAN Help Working Group in Aklavik and Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories and Old Crow, Yukon. We interviewed each participant using a fish-focused food-frequency questionnaire during September-November 2016 and collected hair samples concurrently. Methylmercury was measured in the full-length of each hair sample using gas chromatography inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Multivariable linear regression estimated beta-coefficients and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the effect of fish/whale consumption on hair-methylmercury concentrations. Results: Among 101 participants who provided hair samples and diet data, the mean number of fish/whale species eaten was 3.5 (SD:1.9). The mean hair-methylmercury concentration was 0.60μg/g (SD:0.47). Fish/whale consumption was positively associated with hair-methylmercury concentration, after adjusting for sex, hair length and use of permanent hair treatments. Hair-methylmercury concentrations among participants who consumed the most fish/whale in each season ranged from 0.30- 0.50μg/g higher than those who consumed <1 meal/week. Conclusions: In this population of Canadian Arctic subsistence fishers, hair-methylmercury concentration increased with fish/whale consumption, but the maximum concentrations were below Health Canada’s 6.0μg/g threshold for safe exposure.

scholarly journals Differential arthropod responses to warming are altering the structure of Arctic communities

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 171503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Koltz ◽  
Niels M. Schmidt ◽  
Toke T. Høye
Keyword(s):  
Community Composition ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
Ecosystem Processes ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Individual Species ◽  
Freeze Thaw ◽  
Compositional Changes ◽  
Arctic Communities

The Arctic is experiencing some of the fastest rates of warming on the planet. Although many studies have documented responses to such warming by individual species, the idiosyncratic nature of these findings has prevented us from extrapolating them to community-level predictions. Here, we leverage the availability of a long-term dataset from Zackenberg, Greenland (593 700 specimens collected between 1996 and 2014), to investigate how climate parameters influence the abundance of different arthropod groups and overall community composition. We find that variation in mean seasonal temperatures, winter duration and winter freeze–thaw events is correlated with taxon-specific and habitat-dependent changes in arthropod abundances. In addition, we find that arthropod communities have exhibited compositional changes consistent with the expected effects of recent shifts towards warmer active seasons and fewer freeze–thaw events in NE Greenland. Changes in community composition are up to five times more extreme in drier than wet habitats, with herbivores and parasitoids generally increasing in abundance, while the opposite is true for surface detritivores. These results suggest that species interactions and food web dynamics are changing in the Arctic, with potential implications for key ecosystem processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and primary productivity.

scholarly journals Is the trophic diversity of marine benthic consumers decoupled from taxonomic and functional trait diversity? Isotopic niches of Arctic communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 2140-2151
Author(s):  
Maria Włodarska‐Kowalczuk ◽  
Magnus Aune ◽  
Loïc N. Michel ◽  
Agata Zaborska ◽  
Joanna Legeżyńska
Keyword(s):  
Functional Trait ◽  
Trophic Diversity ◽  
Trait Diversity ◽  
Arctic Communities ◽  
Functional Trait Diversity ◽  
Benthic Consumers

The hemiparasitic angiosperm Bartsia alpina has the potential to accelerate decomposition in sub-arctic communities

Oecologia ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen M. Quested ◽  
Malcolm C. Press ◽  
Terry V. Callaghan ◽  
Hans J. Cornelissen
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Communities

scholarly journals Exploring the Term “Resilience” in Arctic Health and Well-Being Using a Sharing Circle as a Community-Centered Approach: Insights from a Conference Workshop

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwen Healey Akearok ◽  
Katie Cueva ◽  
Jon Stoor ◽  
Christina Larsen ◽  
Elizabeth Rink ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Science Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Dimensions ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Health And Wellness ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Arctic Communities ◽  
Arctic Policy

In the field of Arctic health, “resilience” is a term and concept used to describe capacity to recover from difficulties. While the term is widely used in Arctic policy contexts, there is debate at the community level on whether “resilience” is an appropriate term to describe the human dimensions of health and wellness in the Arctic. Further, research methods used to investigate resilience have largely been limited to Western science research methodologies, which emphasize empirical quantitative studies and may not mirror the perspective of the Arctic communities under study. To explore conceptions of resilience in Arctic communities, a Sharing Circle was facilitated at the International Congress on Circumpolar Health in 2018. With participants engaging from seven of the eight Arctic countries, participants shared critiques of the term “resilience,” and their perspectives on key components of thriving communities. Upon reflection, this use of a Sharing Circle suggests that it may be a useful tool for deeper investigations into health-related issues affecting Arctic Peoples. The Sharing Circle may serve as a meaningful methodology for engaging communities using resonant research strategies to decolonize concepts of resilience and highlight new dimensions for promoting thriving communities in Arctic populations.

scholarly journals Changing access to ice, land and water in Arctic communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Ford ◽  
D. Clark ◽  
T. Pearce ◽  
L. Berrang-Ford ◽  
L. Copland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Communities

scholarly journals Adaptive capacity of Arctic communities in the context of climate change and shipping growth: A review of Russian and Western literature

Polar Record ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Coastal Communities ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
English Only ◽  
The Past ◽  
Arctic Communities ◽  
Circumpolar Arctic

Abstract Throughout the past two decades, the number of studies examining the adaptive capacity of Arctic communities in the context of climate change has been increasing; however, little is known about Arctic communities’ ability to adapt to certain emerging changes, such as increased shipping activity. To address this knowledge gap, this study systematically analyses published scientific articles on community adaptive capacity in circumpolar Arctic, including articles published in Russian which may not be captured in English-only reviews. Throughout this review, the study focuses on three areas: the development of the adaptive capacity framework; the conditions that enable community adaption abilities; and the extent to which shipping developments are addressed in the literature. This study demonstrates that the adaptive capacity framework has been significantly developed both theoretically and methodologically and is broadly used to address new types of climatic and non-climatic changes. Though the impacts from the shipping development are discussed in some studies, there is a clear need for further examination of coastal communities’ ability to adapt to such changes. Additionally, the study reveals limitations in the application of the Western conceptual terminology when exploring community-based research by Russian scholars.

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