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Nicole is a Social Scientist in the Decision Support Branch of the Integrated Information Dissemination Division of the Water Mission Area.  She began at the USGS in 2008 as a Student Intern in Support of Native American Relations (SISNAR), a program funded by the USGS Office of Tribal Relations.  As a SISNAR she completed a case study of Indigenous Observations of Climate Change in a rural Alaska Native Village in the Yukon River Basin while completing her master's degree in social science at the University of babyÖ±²¥app, Denver.  Her work explores the interactions between different knowledge systems regarding human dimensions of landscape change and water resources in rural Alaska Native villages. Currently her focus is on the co-production of knowledge utilizing community-based and participatory methods in the Arctic and sub-Arctic to form a better understanding of environmental change and impacts on the populations of this region.  This includes implementing an extensive community-based environmental monitoring program in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region of western Alaska where scientific instruments and local observations are used to produce an increased understanding of change in this region. Methods used in this work include semi-structured interviews with community experts, participatory mapping, and focus groups as well as community and K-12 classroom outreach, workshops, and community meetings.

Abstract

Placing Hydrological Change in Context in the Yukon River Watershed: Community-Based Monitoring & Knowledge Co-Production

Profound changes in hydrology are occurring in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions.  The Yukon River Watershed, covering 330,000 square miles in Alaska and western Canada, is no exception.  Since 2006 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC) have collaboratively managed the Indigenous Observation Network (ION) a community-based monitoring program.  Tribal and First Nation environmental professionals residing in Indigenous communities across the 2,300 mile stretch of the Yukon River collect surface water samples as part of this program.  Surface water samples are then analyzed at the USGS Water Resources Mission Area’s Project Laboratory in Boulder, CO.  Among the many benefits of this program, participation has allowed USGS scientists to form lasting partnerships with Tribal and First Nation environmental professionals and communities that would otherwise have not been possible.  These relationships have led to projects that operate in a co-production framework to incorporate Indigenous Knowledge and Observations into our understanding of changing hydrology in this region and the impacts those changes have on communities.  This presentation focuses water quality results derived from the combination of ION with historic USGS. Results indicate changing surface water/groundwater flowpaths in the Yukon River watershed with results achieved from.  These biogeochemical results will be presented in the context of local knowledge and firsthand observations of changing hydrology as documented in workshops focused on understanding landscape change conducted in 2017 in the Alaska Native Village of Chevak.