The Future of Culturally Important Species in North America

Principal Investigator

Rob Dunn

Start Date

2019-04-30

End Date

2021-04-30

Release Date

2018

Many thousands of plant and animal species are culturally important to the Indigenous peoples of North America. Global change is leading to major shifts in the abundance, distribution and life history of these species, with concomitant effects on their value to the peoples for whom they are most culturally important. While a number of studies have begun to explore the futures of culturally important species, these studies typically do so in isolation (focusing on individual plant species and single scenarios) and typically do so with little engagement with the people for whom such species are most important. Here we seek to take two initial steps in what we view as a long-term endeavor. First, we use a novel approach to model the current regions to which the future climates of each tribal land in North America will be most analogous in the future. The product of this step will be an online interface as well as physical map, both of which allow stakeholders to begin conversations with a common starting point and at least one tangible, common frame of refence. Second, in light of this model and its products we will convene a listening session at the United South and Eastern Tribes meeting at which we will solicit feedback on the best way forward in terms of studying and managing species on tribal land, in light of global change. We will frame the listening session with four key questions, which species and phenomena should be studied, at what spatial and temporal scale should they be studied, what management decisions are most relevant in light of such studies. Based on our listening session, and in light of our model, we will present our results to the Public Science cluster at North Carolina State University and, in doing so, solicit involvement from the experts best able to help carry out key next steps in this work, using tools from ecology and climate science, but also the best approaches from citizen and, more generally, public science.

ScienceBase WMS

• National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers
• Southeast CASC