Past Awards

The Internship will provide an Alaska student the opportunity to support an international
effort to monitor coastal biodiversity in the Arctic. Under contract to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Nuka Research coordinates the Coastal Expert Monitoring Group of the
Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program, or CBMP. (That program is the
cornerstone program of the Arctic Council's Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna
Working Group.) A U.S. Coastal Expert Network is now being formed and requires
Intern support to advance development of a coastal biodiversity knowledge map bringing
together sources from scientific monitoring, Indigenous knowledge, and local knowledge.
The Oil Spill Recovery Institute's goals include understanding the Arctic and sub-Arctic
marine environments, including potential impacts of oil spills to the economy, food
security, subsistence activities, lifestyle, and the well-being of people and resilience of
communities. Coastal biodiversity is central to all of these potential impacts. The CBMP
Coastal monitoring plan has been developed using a co-production of knowledge
approach and is intended to bring together science, Indigenous Knowledge, and local
knowledge to provide a holistic understanding of coastal biodiversity. The products that
will be developed will prove a valuable resource to inform decisions about activities that
may pose oil spill hazards, identify critical information to for decision-making during a
response, and understand of baseline conditions when assessing spill impacts.
The Intern would necessarily work closely with the U.S. Coastal Expert Network, which
will be led by the National Park Service, and other organizational partners. Nuka
Research would administer the grant and internship to support this important project.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Context for the Internship
The Arctic Council, through the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna ́s (CAFF)
Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP), published the Arctic Coastal
Biodiversity Monitoring Plan in 2019. That plan creates a platform to develop and
communicate information on the status of selected Arctic coastal species and ecosystems
based on Indigenous Knowledge, science, and local knowledge. It identifies seven
“coastscapes’’ around which to build this knowledge, with each of these defined by the
natural and human environments within them. CBMP-Coastal will apply a co-production
of knowledge approach, bringing together science and Indigenous Knowledge in an
equitable way when developing products that synthesize information from around the
circumpolar Arctic.
Each Arctic coastal state is initiating a Coastal Expert Network to gather knowledge
needed to build a circumpolar understanding of Arctic coastal biodiversity. Each Coastal
Expert Network will contribute information to an online circumpolar map that will:
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• Locate the “coastscapes” around the circumpolar Arctic coastline. There are seven
coastscapes that CBMP-Coastal has defined to describe areas with similar habitats
due to the combination of physiographic features and terrestrial, marine and
freshwater processes.
• Display knowledge of relevant coastal biodiversity monitoring programs.
• Display additional layers of information relevant to understanding biodiversity
within the coastscapes, such as ranges of key Arctic coastal species, remote
sensing data, Indigenous place names and other information shared (e.g., how
places have changed over time) and governance structures around the circumpolar
Arctic. (CAFF, 2020; 2021).
Nuka Research is already supporting the circumpolar and U.S. efforts through a contract
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. However, that contract is primarily intended to
support coordination of the circumpolar group. Implementation in the U.S. requires
additional support to conduct the necessary legwork to compile diverse sources of
information through the southern Bering Sea and Aleutians.
Goals and objectives
The goal of this Internship is to help build a knowledge inventory of coastal biodiversity
in Arctic Alaska that is being developed by the U.S. Coastal Expert Network of the
Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program. In doing so, the following objectives will
be met:
§ Introduce an Alaska student to both oil spill response planning and considerations
in Alaska as well as the Arctic Council context by involving them directly in the
work
§ Establish connections to communities and other partners for the U.S. Coastal
Expert Network
§ Advance a co-production of knowledge approach and help share lessons learned
from that experience
§ Raise awareness in Alaska's oil spill response community of the resources being
developed by the U.S. Coastal Expert Network
Connection to OSRI's mission
The Oil Spill Recovery Institute's goals include understanding the Arctic and sub-Arctic
marine environments, including potential impacts of oil spills to the economy, food
security, subsistence activities, lifestyle, and the well-being of people and resilience of
communities. Coastal biodiversity is central to all of these potential impacts. The CBMP
Coastal program has been developed using a co-production of knowledge approach and is
intended to bring together science, Indigenous Knowledge, and local knowledge to
provide a holistic understanding of coastal biodiversity (Jones et al., 2019).
The products that will be developed will prove a valuable resource to inform decisions
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about activities that may pose oil spill hazards, identify critical information to for
decision-making during a response, and understand of baseline conditions when assessing
spill impacts.
Methods
The approach to coastal biodiversity monitoring being applied is described in the Arctic
Coastal Biodiversity Monitoring Plan (Jones et al, 2019) and subsequent implementation
plan (CAFF, 2020). Although the project timeline has been delayed due to the pandemic,
the co-production knowledge approach used to develop the monitoring questions,
targeted ecosystem components, attributes, and parameters is intact. Because of the
approach being applied, attributes include things such as abundance and phenology but
also taste and accessibility for hunting (Jones et al, 2019).
Recruitment
As far as the Internship itself, Nuka Research will work with partners already involved in
the CAFF work (e.g., National Park Service and the Aleut International Association) to
recruit an Intern. We anticipate that we will need to share the posting widely, including
through the Aleut International Association, Aleutians and Bering Sea Islands Initiative,
the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, regional corporations, and the
Alaska-based Arctic Youth Ambassadors of the Arctic Council.
Strong preference will be given for someone who lives in or comes from a community in
the Aleutian Islands or southern Bering Sea. A strong preference would also be given for
a current student, but, only if OSRI agreed, we would like to be able to consider recent
graduates as well.
Management and Oversight
Nuka Research would oversee and administer the Internship and grant. The Intern will
work remotely, but depending on their location it may be possible to embed them within
one of the partner organizations' offices.
Sara Nichols in our Seldovia office has helped manage the circumpolar Coastal group for
several years and would be available for regular oversight, though the Intern would also
work with Sierra Fletcher.
Administration
The Intern would be hired as a part-time employee of Nuka Research, providing for
payroll, worker's compensation insurance, and travel reimbursement. Nuka Research
would administer the grant requirements with OSRI.
Internship Activities
Intern activities may include: organizing and taking notes on meetings of the U.S. Coastal
Expert Network; reaching out to community representatives and scientists to compile
metadata on coastal biodiversity knowledge (including travel, if feasible); attending
events such as the Alaska Regional Response Team meetings to learn about Alaska's oil
spill response planning structure and participants; compiling information into a geospatial
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database (or preparing it for such compilation if the Intern does not have the necessary
GIS skills); participating in meetings of the circumpolar Coastal Expert Monitoring
Program and/or Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna meetings to gain exposure to
international work; and drafting documents for use in outreach and reporting.
The Intern will be asked to keep a weekly journal of the highlights of their activities and
reflections. This will primarily be a mechanism for reinforcing their learning and
communicating with others working closely on the project. While it will support final
reporting it will not be delivered as a public deliverable.
We propose also to leverage Nuka Research's own experience with oil spill response
issues in Alaska to provide mentoring and learning opportunities for an Intern to help
them learn about this field by helping them to develop a final report that describes their
potential uses of the products being developed by the U.S. Coastal Expert Network for oil
spill response planning, decision-making, and impact assessment purposes.
Timeline
The project timeline is proposed to be April 2022–April 2023. The internship itself will
not last this long, but flexibility in terms of both the start date and whether the person
works full-time (for a shorter internship) or part-time (for a longer internship) will
facilitate the recruitment and allow for flexibility around the pandemic and work of the
U.S. Coastal Expert Network (which is also subject to the pandemic and other resource
needs).
Results and Products
The Internship will support development of products for the U.S. Coastal Expert Network
and the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program. These products are large in scope
and will involve many contributors.
At the end of the Internship, the Intern will be asked to deliver a final report that
describes their activities, reflections on the experience, and potential uses of the products
being developed by the U.S. Coastal Expert Network for oil spill response planning,
decision-making, and impact assessment purposes. (This will also meet the report
requirement for the OSRI-funded Internship by tying the work directly to OSRI's
mission.)