Water key in predicting effects of climate change in Alaska

REID BREWER

June 19, 2008 at 10:10AM AKST

Alaskans rely on waters in many ways.

Surface waters meet domestic needs such as drinking, cooking, and cleaning as well as subsistence and industrial demands. Surface waters also provide a means for transportation, a means of collecting subsistence foods such as salmon and habitat for much of Alaska’s wildlife populations.

For Alaskans, water is quite literally the most important resource that affects our daily lives.

As people begin talking about climate change and a warming environment, researchers are attempting to better understand what changes in climate might mean for the Alaska hydrological cycle, the path of water in and throughout our ecosystem.

Precipitation patterns, especially in Arctic systems, are complex and difficult to predict without considering changes to our global climate. With those changes, however, we really have no idea of the direct and indirect effects that will reverberate throughout Alaska’s coastal communities.

Seasonal changes in surface water have impacts on food systems at multiple scales.

Changes in precipitation, the timing of breakup and freeze-up, fire regime and hydrological changes, individually and collectively create terrestrial changes that impact both the food harvest and the viability of the overall community.

As permafrost degrades, local lakes and ponds may begin to drain. As this happens, many groundwater systems that Alaskans and Alaska wildlife depend on may come into to jeopardy.

Many hunters and fishermen that use environmental cues to predict weather and the behavior of animals are concerned that changes in these cues may mean changes in the effectiveness of understanding a system that has been passed down for hundreds of years.

Rural Alaskans’ livelihoods are strongly connected to climate, weather, ecosystems, cultures and economic systems. These are each with important and sometimes different responses to changes, but all connected in a way. Water is the foundation of these relationships.

To assure water and food security for Alaska communities, especially as we are seeing the impacts of a changing climate now, communities need the freedom to innovate and adapt. We need to synthesize and communicate climate change information to both institutions and coastal communities.

Reid Brewer of Unalaska is a marine biologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Advisory Program. He can be reached at (907) 581-4589 or reidbrewer@hotmail.com.