AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNICATING SOCIAL AND NATURAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC

Abstract

Accelerated climate warming has cascading effects on Arctic ecosystems and northern communities, resulting in an urgent need for adaptation and communication strategies across circumpolar regions. As such, Arctic amplification has sparked a large volume of research projects from various disciplines. The purpose of this research was to investigate the social and natural impacts of climate change in the Canadian Arctic, by employing an interdisciplinary approach. A systematic comparison between Inuit responses in interviews about climate change across Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, suggested that while impacts of climate change are largely perceived as negative in the way they affect Inuit well-being, climate impacts are prioritized differently in urban versus remote communities. This difference in conceptualizing the issue of climate change has implications for communicating climate change and developing adaptive strategies, both within the social and natural sciences. To complement the analysis of social climate impacts, a limnological assessment of lakes within a transitional Arctic ecotone in the Western Canadian Arctic highlights the importance of discussing habitat and lake morphology differences when studying environmental change over large latitudinal gradients. Semi-structured interviews with practitioners of Arctic organizations were conducted to gain insight into current strategies and recommendations for early career researchers to communicate their climate change-related research across the Canadian Arctic in a way that is both meaningful and productive for Arctic communities. In a shifting Arctic research paradigm, interdisciplinary approaches offer a versatile strategy for gaining an enhanced understanding of complex phenomena such as climate change in the Arctic; yet this integration, meaningful community engagement, and knowledge mobilization of climate change-related research remain challenging. More guidelines and training opportunities for researchers, both at the start and continuously throughout their research careers, are needed to support them in a rapidly evolving Arctic.