Research

Photo by Sergey Furman in Tilichiki, Russia

The Arctic is warming on average twice as rapidly as the rest of the planet, which is leading to significant changes in sea ice to which local communities must respond. Beringia, a region of the Arctic encompassing US and Russian territory, is expected to experience some of the highest variability in sea ice conditions in the coming century. This project focuses on the question: how do we design better and more flexible governance and infrastructure to adapt to changing Arctic conditions? To answer this question, the team is taking a convergence approach to forecast potential changes in the Arctic sea ice environment and the impacts on social and ecological systems resulting from those changes and identify adaptive strategies to enhance resilience to those impacts. 

How do people understand and perceive changing sea ice, and how do they adapt to variability in ice conditions?

Where are the current critical hot spots of variability in sea ice, and where will they be in the future as the environment and communities change? 

How will governmental and non-governmental organizations in the region navigate changing sea ice conditions and interact with communities to respond to their changing needs? 

 What features of the existing, and potential, social-ecological systems are robust (or fragile) to forecast changes in sea ice?