RAMP Final Report

The Arctic, including Alaska, has warmed significantly over the last five decades, with widespread changes in every region, particularly in Alaska’s Arctic slope, north of the Brooks Range. Prominent changes include changes of ocean temperature, increase in permafrost temperature in many regions, warmer winter seasons, with longer and warmer snow-free seasons, warmer freshwater temperatures, movement of plant and wildlife species previously found in more southern regions of Alaska into the Arctic slope region, changes in summer and winter ranges of terrestrial mammal species, and the extension of more southern host species with their zoonotic pathogens into more northern regions of Alaska and Canada. These changes have resulted in new human and wildlife health threats in the Arctic slope region. The small population and remote location of rural Alaskan villages has always meant that rural Alaska residents have continued to utilize traditional subsistence wildlife species to a greater extent than any other US population, both for cultural reasons, and the high expense of imported western foods.