Modeling climate drivers of traditional food intake in Alaska Native Communities

This research leveraged through ACCAP is exploring the relationship between eating traditional foods and environmental indicators in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta of Alaska. The study will explore whether unusual weather conditions like high heat, impactful events like flooding, and seasonal conditions like later than usual spring thaw, can explain changes in traditional food intake and human health. 

In rural Alaska, hunting, fishing, gathering, and harvesting wild foods — known as subsistence — is a crucial food source. Wild foods provide superior nutritional value and store-bought foods are costly: milk can cost over $12 a gallon, ground hamburger can be over $10 per pound. Changes in the environment can impact health and access to fish and wildlife species that are essential for subsistence. 

Traditional food intake will be modeled using nitrogen stable isotope analysis of blood samples previously collected from people in the region for over six decades (1962-2007). The nitrogen stable isotope values are naturally and uniquely elevated in fish and marine mammals, which contribute over 80% of total traditional food intake in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 

The climatology will be reconstructed back to the 1960s. This will focus on variables that influence access to subsistence hunting such as temperature, rain and snowfall, sea ice concentrations and ice season length, the timing of river-ice break-up, and extreme weather events. Next, the climatology will be analyzed alongside the diets. The research will look for changes in traditional food intake over time and if trends vary by season and community location (coastal versus upriver). If any trends emerge they will be examined alongside the climatology variables.