Abstracts of Dr. Tom McGovern's talks

7pm Thursday February 26th, 2009; University of Alaska Museum Arnold Espe Auditorium

Extinction, Survival, and Sustainability- thresholds and conjunctures in the Viking North Atlantic

The North Atlantic has seen dramatic interplay of humans, island ecosystems, and changing climate over the past thousand years. The Viking age expansion of people, economies, and social systems out of mainland Scandinavia into the northern British Isles, Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and (briefly) Vinland/ North America set up a common culture across a very diverse set of island ecosystems, which would be affected in very different ways by later climate change and accumulated human environmental impacts. The different island communities experienced radically different fates by 1500 AD- the Faroese had established a generally successful sustainable adaptation that produced little environmental change, the Icelanders conserved many resources but ultimately lost their battle against soil erosion on a large scale, and the Greenlandic colony became entirely extinct.  The circumpolar north has become increasingly recognized as a sort of "global mine canary" for rapid environmental change and it is clear that present changes cannot be understood without a long term record of human / environmental interaction- a historical ecology of human ecodynamics. An international research cooperative (North Atlantic Biocultural Organization- NABO [www.nabohome.org]) has been working with support from the international polar year initiative to combine archaeology, history, environmental science, and climatology to provide a better understanding of the dramatic stories of human/ environment interaction in the N Atlantic and this talk will present some of the most recent results of this coordinated research effort.

3:30 pm Friday February 27th, 2009; 304 Eielson Bld., UAF

Human Ecodynamics in the North Atlantic- recent IPY results

As part of the International Polar Year collaborative effort the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) was funded by the US NSF, Canadian, Danish, and Icelandic funding sources beginning in 2007 to carry out interdisciplinary work in archaeology/ environmental science/ education/ public outreach in the Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland (www.nabohome.org). Our mandate has been to combine interdisciplinary long term human ecodynamics research in this historically and environmentally key portion of the circumpolar north with a program of education aimed at doctoral students through K-12 and the engagement of local museums, schools, and communities in the region. While the program is ongoing, we do have some exciting new results on human/climate/ landscape dynamics in the Norse N Atlantic to report and some approaches to delivering our results and engaging our public to share with Alaskan colleagues long engaged in similar research, education, and outreach efforts. We have some new perspectives on Norse adaptations in the N Atlantic, and a very different understanding of the interaction of Viking age and medieval settlers with a changing environment- the story told to Jared Diamond in "Collapse" needs major updating. This talk will present some highlights of project results and a discussion of where we hope to go with our coordinated multi-island effort through 2010.