Project Information

Title: Investigating the Relative Roles of Natural and Shoreline Harvest in Altering the Kenai Peninsula's Rocky Intertidal 030647

Project Year and Number: 2003: 030647

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2004: 040647

Principal Investigator (PI): Jennifer Ruesink (University of Washington)

Managing Agency: NOAA

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location: Kenai Peninsula

Restoration Category: Research

Injured Resources Addressed: Intertidal Organisms, Subsistence

Abstract: The rocky shores of the outer Kenai Peninsula are the home of three Sugpiaq native villages where the black chiton (Katharina tunicata) remains an important traditional subsistence food source. This benthic invertebrate is also a competitively dominant herbivore known to have dramatic impacts on the structure, dynamics, and diversity of the rocky intertidal. In collaboration with tribal members, this project will evaluate the relative roles of natural factors (predation, grazing, and natural variability) and anthropogenic impacts (Katharina harvest) in altering intertidal community structure. The project addresses the core GEM hypothesis of human versus natural impacts on the structure and productivity of coastal ecosystems. It will also provide two field seasons (2003 and 2004) of valuable baseline monitoring in the intertidal zone that could be continued in the future. Local tribes will be involved in both developing and carrying out research which will match the GEM commitment to community based science.


Proposal: View (431 KB)

Information and/or Products produced by this project:
Title Description Type Document(s)
Note from Peter Hagen 4/28/05 Note from Peter Hagen 4/28/05: DRAFT copy of Anne Salomon's TEK report. Anne is Jennifer Ruesink's graduate student working closely with the villagers of Port Graham on their chiton (Bidarkis) resources. She, along with Henry Huntington I believe, are putting together a book manuscript based on the TEK report. Annie was kind enough to send a draft of that manuscript as a pdf file. I believe she is still hoping to have it reviewed by the Port Graham elders, but I thought you might be interested in it as well as it encapsulates a number of themes that served as the basis of GEM and places the spill in context of other changes. It is also a good read. EVOS funding is mentioned in the acknowledgment on page 71. Other View (3,444 KB)

Reports:
Annual Report FY03: View (503 KB)
Final Report: View (632 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available