cometadata/datacite-titles-descriptions-related-identifiers huggingface dataset:
DOI: 10.18739/a2cr5nd7p
title: Testing Genotype-Hormone Associations in Circumpolar Ancestral and Descendant Populations

description: This project produced novel findings regarding the association between genotype and human fertility, advanced new methods for studying hormonal and genotypic variation, and contributed the groundwork for subsequent research on the environmental, behavioral, and genetic determinants of reproductive hormone concentrations in arctic women. Individual differences in fertility are partly dependent upon a woman's reproductive hormone levels during her menstrual cycle. These hormone concentrations are also risk factors for several diseases (e.g., breast and other cancers, cardiovascular disease). Despite the significant roles of these hormones in women's health, very little is known about the extent and causes of variation in these hormones among pre-menopausal arctic women. This project examined whether genetic variation contributes to differences in fertility and hormonal variation in circumpolar ancestral (Central Asian) and descendant (indigenous South American) populations, and between former East and West German women. The specific characteristics of each of these population made them particularly suitable choices for this study. Contemporary Germany is very similar to the U.S. but had been divided for about 40 years into two separate countries with different lifestyles. Thus, Germany is both a good model for understanding hormonal variation in the U.S. population, and also allows a comparison of the effects of the different lifestyles on hormone concentrations in these genetically comparable German samples. Likewise, the Bolivian Aymara and Central Asian populations are genetically similar because of their shared ancestry with circumpolar populations, but their different lifestyles and environments are likely to influence hormone concentrations. We identified a significant SNP, exm562556 (rs34068461), associated with variation in fertility (fertility highest in GG genotype than in GT genotype which was higher than TT genotype). This variant is in a gene that encodes a protein thought to be involved in centrosomal or ciliary functions. Mutations in this gene also cause Leber congenital amaurosis type V, a syndrome including congenital blindness. The field, laboratory and analytical techniques advanced in this project are now being used in a study of the impact of arctic environmental conditions (most notably, the extreme seasonal variation in photoperiod) on Icelandic women's physiology and behaviors including reproductive and immune functioning, sleep repertoires, energy expenditure, dietary patterns, and psychosocial well-being.
DOI: 10.18739/a2hh6c71f
title: Synthetic annual place-level estimates of language use at home and educational attainment for American Indian and Alaska Native individuals in rural Alaska, 2000 - 2015

description: The American Community Survey (ACS) replaced the United States (US) Census Long Form Survey after 2000 as the only systematic source of community-level information on the American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) population living in rural Alaska communities. We define rural Alaska as the region corresponding to Census Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA) 400, known also as the Subsistence Alaska PUMA. The ACS is an annual survey. However, due to small sample sizes, the ACS publishes estimates for places and census areas/boroughs only as five-year moving averages. Even with the averaging over five years, estimates of educational attainment and language use vary substantially over time in many communities, and high margins of error make it difficult to distinguish communities from each other. Using individual Census and ACS records accessed through the Census Research Data Center program, we generated annual synthetic estimates of language use at home and two measures of educational attainment -- high school graduation and college degree -- based on logistic regressions estimated with data on individuals indicating AIAN identity, either alone or in combination with other races. The equations were estimated under the assumption that language and education change gradually at the community level, and that variations from year to year are associated with sample variation in basic characteristics of the population such as age and gender that can be benchmarked with precision to the 2000 and 2010 census counts. The synthetic estimates remove the variation associated with interannual survey age and gender variation, resulting in a smaller margin of error for the smoothed estimates than in the original sample means. They also include interpolated values for years 2001 through 2004 when no survey data were collected.
DOI: 10.18739/a2804xm2c
title: Understanding Climate_Driven Phenological Change: Observations, Adaptations and Cultural Implications in Northeastern Siberia and Labrador/Nunatsiavut (PHENARC)

description: This project is an interdisciplinary effort to systematically document, model, and interpret key linkages between physical, biological and human systems in the context of changing seasonality (phenology) due to global and local climate change. In line with the CSAS solicitation, the primary research objective of PHENARC is to understand the linkages between Arctic system climate change, altered phenological processes, and adaptations and responses of human societies to these changes to decipher implications for the future. The project?s overarching research questions are: i) What are the key seasonal events that form an integral part of the ecosystems in PHENARC?s two main study areas of northeastern Siberia and Labrador?; ii) How are these seasonal events changing, and what specific phenological shifts are occurring in these study areas?; iii) What are the drivers of these seasonal events, and how do they ripple through/affect the entire system?; iv) How are phenological changes and their resulting ecosystem impacts affecting the timing of people?s subsistence and other activities?; v) How are these societal changes in turn affecting the larger cultural system? In order to answer such questions, PHENARC will employ qualitative and quantitative methods of field study, retrospective investigations, and modeling/synthesis techniques. Data sources will include: systematic meteorological observations; climate proxy data; documentary historical records; oral history; and data drawn from interviews with contemporary respondents in the project?s two study areas. PHENARC builds upon the solid foundation of Arctic systems data already established by the project PIs in the Arctic/Subarctic regions of northeastern Siberia and Labrador/Nunatsiavut, two arctic regions not extensively studied before, that provide a variety of terrains, and ecosystem and human communities for a robust comparative study. Additionally, the communities differ in cultural and ethnic mix. PHENARC represents a novel approach to advancing knowledge of key linkages between climate and human systems by integrating Arctic climate data with local knowledge drawn from rural native communities in two distinct arctic regions. PHENARC involves the targeted communities, regional and national specialists, and a team of international collaborators and affiliates. By investigating patterns of seasonality in two disparate arctic regions that are each home to a dynamic contrast of mixed and native settlements, and with a resulting potential transfer of knowledge across scales and international borders, PHENARC?s contribution to global knowledge promises to be considerable with high potential for disseminating widely new knowledge regarding changing seasonality in Arctic climate and human systems. Project is includes a close collaboration with local community residents and the results will be disseminated widely on local, regional, and circumpolar levels.
DOI: 10.18739/a24746s7h
title: Cape Espenberg Birnirk Project (CEBP) faunal material summary analysis (2016-2019)

description: This research brings together researchers and community members to develop a deeper and broader understanding of the Birnirk archaeological complex and its contribution to the emergence of the Inupiat culture. Using archaeological, genetic, and environmental data sets, project participants examine the question of a cultural break around AD 1000 in northwest Alaska and the implications for later cultural development in the region. This dataset provides summary statistics for a sample of the faunal material collected from two seasons of excavation of an early Thule house and a Birnirk house. The main goal of the faunal analysis is to test the hypothesis that Birnirk people used the environment and animal resources in different ways than later Thule Inuit. These changes are explored in relation to the larger cultural and environmental contexts of changing climate, ecology, technology, interaction, and social organization reconstructed in collaboration with the other analyses in this collaborative project.
DOI: 10.18739/a20g3h048
title: Cape Espenberg Birnirk Project (CEBP) human mitogenome summary analysis (2016-2019)

description: Genetic characterization of past Inuit populations has been limited due to the lack of genetic information from individuals associated with the Birnirk culture (1300-700 BP). “Beringian-specific” maternal lineages A2a, A2b1, and D4b1a2a1a have been documented in Thule Inuit populations (950-50 BP) throughout the North American Arctic. However, only haplotype A2a has been reported in five individuals excavated from the Paipelghak site on Chukotka peninsula. It remains unclear if Birnirk individuals are genetically distinct from Thule Inuit populations. Genetic research of past populations from western Alaska, a proposed transition area between the Birnirk and Thule material cultures, provides an opportunity to address this uncertainty. Segments from the first hypervariable region of the mitochondrial control region were sequenced from thirty-eight Birnirk individuals from the Alaskan North Slope and two Thule individuals excavated from Cape Espenberg. Twenty-three individuals yielded full, contamination-free control region sequences and possess mitochondrial lineages A2a, A2a1, A2a3, A2b1, and D4b1a2a1a. These results indicate an expansion of the observed maternal lineage diversity and confirms Birnirk populations as direct maternal ancestors to the Thule Inuit.
DOI: 10.18739/a2vt1gr1q
title: Concordance of genetic and subfossil evidence for the Holocene radiation of the Holarctic Eubosmina, 1998-2006

description: We investigated the evolutionary radiation of a freshwater zooplankter that possesses a mixed breeding system and a detailed, dated, subfossil record. We estimated the phylogenetic relationships among the proposed species with complete nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 2 mitochondrial gene sequence variation. We sequenced 374 Eubosmina specimens representing 10 out of 11 distinct morphospecies from 86 water bodies in three separate Holarctic regions. As expected for a Holocene radiation, there was a lack of monophyly for the proposed species and rare sharing of derived haplotypes among some species. Nevertheless, the proposed species exhibited little or no sharing of mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid haplotypes. Moreover, the phylogenetic and haplotype network results revealed a radiation pattern that is concordant with the subfossil record‐with an older Bosmina (E.) longispina radiating into several new forms. Our results bolster the subfossil, morphometric, experimental, and within-population genetic evidence that the common arctic B. (E.) longispina has radiated into several incipient species during the Holocene.
DOI: 10.18739/a2gh9bb16
title: Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Archaeological Investigation of Erosion and its Effect on Social Processes in the Arctic

description: This award supports a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement project to investigate the relationship between erosion and economic inequality over the environmentally and socially dynamic first 500 years of Norse settlement in Hegranes, Skagafjörður, Iceland. The agricultural practices of the first settlers of Iceland, ca. 870 CE, caused widespread deforestation and soil erosion. Erosion moves sediments from one place to another, and can lead to either landscape degradation or augmentation. On Hegranes small abandoned farms lie near large successful farms that still operate today, and eroded areas are interspersed with productive grassland. This patchwork landscape allows investigation of erosion as related to farmstead abandonment and the development of social inequality. This research has implication for understanding how coupled human and environmental systems today might affect processes of social change. The researcher will use tephrochronology to compare the settlement sequence of small farms with associated environmental sequences of soil erosion and landscape change. The goal is to explore changes in number and distribution of small household farms, document processes of erosion, and investigate whether social reorganization of the landscape corresponds to increases in erosion. Larger, more powerful households likely benefited from abandonment of small farms, and this project will suggest how abandonment was managed to their advantage. This work will contribute to discussions about social and political consequences of human-initiated environmental change, focusing on unequal power relations between households that facilitate environmental degradation and social inequality.
DOI: 10.18739/a2m90245w
title: Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Prehistoric Upland Use in the Central Alaska Range

description: This is a dissertation improvement grant award. Under the supervision of Dr. Ted Goebel, Mr. John Blong will conduct his doctoral research in the central Alaska Range, undertaking a study of human use of upland landscapes from earliest colonization to less than 1,000 years ago. The primary focus of this project is to explain the timing, environmental context, and nature of human colonization of the uplands, and to explore how the environment and use of upland landscapes changed throughout prehistory. This project will be the first comprehensive study of human upland adaptations in central Alaska. There are several models describing human use of the uplands, but there has been no focused exploration of upland settlement and land-use strategies. The study area for conducting this research is the upper Susitna River basin, where a pilot study resulted in the location of 19 new archaeological sites, two of which have been radiocarbon dated, with cultural components spanning the early through late Holocene. Five specific objectives drive this research: (1) to establish the paleoenvironmental history, and (2) record of human occupation of upland landscapes of the upper Susitna River basin, (3) to reconstruct lithic technological activities carried out over time in the uplands of the central Alaska Range basin, from initial colonization to less than 1,000 years ago, (4) to interpret technological-organization strategies carried out in the uplands of the central Alaska Range, especially as they relate to subsistence/settlement organization, and (5) to put the upper Susitna basin study area in the greater context of the prehistoric record of central Alaska. To address these objectives, the proposed research will include reconstruction of the paleoenvironmental context of human activity through pollen coring and analysis, archaeological survey and testing, and lithic analysis of assemblages recovered from fieldwork and from eight previously known archaeological sites in the central Alaska Range.
DOI: 10.18739/a2br8mh5g
title: Fornbyli Landscape and Archaeological Survey on Hegranes (FLASH) Final Report 2017

description: This report describes survey, excavation, and environmental analysis carried out at outlying ruins and archaeological places (fornbyli) on Hegranes, Skagafjordur, North Iceland in 2017, as well as updates to work carried out in 2015 and 2016. The FLASH research had two primary purposes: first, to locate, date, and characterize the nature of the activities performed at the fornbyli locations; and second, to describe and understand the sequences of soil erosion, sediment deposition, and landscape change that have occurred on Hegranes since the settlement of Iceland ca. 870 AD. Preliminary interpretations suggest that many fornbyli were inhabited early, that the sites were reused for multiple purposes after habitation ceased, through the medieval period and later, and that the overall landscape of Hegranes has been subject to significant erosion and alteration over the course of its history. Most of the fornbyli were inhabited prior to ca. 950 AD, and several of them were relatively large during the 10th and 11th centuries, comparable in size to farms that would later become much larger and more successful. Others seem only to have been inhabited for a short time, perhaps as a temporary or seasonal work site. None show evidence of habitation much after ca. 1104, and from that time until after the late 18th century, many of the sites were rebuilt as farm infrastructure for livestock management (stekkir and beitarhus, constructed between 1104 and the 19th century, are often still visible), only to be finally abandoned and fall to ruin before the 20th century. Preliminary environmental analysis suggests two significant periods of erosion: prior to 1104, and after 1766, roughly corresponding to the periods when the use of the sites was changing. Preliminary analysis of carbon content at nearby mires further suggests that wetlands were more likely to persist through time close to the sites than farther away, perhaps a result of intentional preservation to support wetland exploitation. Indeed, coring further shows that wetlands near most of the sites were exploited for peat and turf through most of their history.
DOI: 10.18739/a23775w78
title: Fornbyli Landscape and Archaeological Survey on Hegranes (FLASH) Interim Report 2016, Iceland

description: In 2016, the Fornbyli Landscape and Archaeological Survey on Hegranes (FLASH) project and the Skagafjordur Church and Settlement Survey (SCASS) continued survey and excavation in and around known outlying ruins and archaeological places (fornbyli) on the farms of As (Naefursstadur), Keflavik (including Kriki and Thraelagerdi), Egg (Minni-Egg), Helluland (Haagerdi and Kotid), and Hamar (Hendilkot) on Hegranes in Skagafjordur, North Iceland. The work was performed to meet the goals of Kathryn Catlin's doctoral dissertation research towards her PhD at Northwestern University as part of the Skagafjordur Church and Settlement Survey (SCASS). Additional coring by SCASS in 2016 at the outlying fields of Gardur (Hegranesthing), Keta, Rip, Utanverdunes, Keflavik, Egg (including Rein), Helluland (including Asgrimsstadir), and Hamar are described in separate reports, along with specific details and analysis of the farmsteads at these major sites. The FLASH research had two primary purposes: first, to locate, date, and to the extent possible, characterize the nature of the activities performed at the fornbyli locations; and second, to describe and understand the sequences of soil erosion, sediment deposition, and landscape change that have occurred on Hegranes, both near and distant from the fornbyli sites and the major farms, since the settlement of Iceland ca. 870 AD. Coring was employed by FLASH and SCASS to (1) determine the establishment date and extent of the medieval settlements and farmsteads; (2) locate areas of human activity and measure soil depth in the fields immediately surrounding the medieval settlements; and (3) determine the dates, use, and environmental context of fornbyli sites. Preliminary interpretations of the work suggest that many fornbyli were inhabited early, that the sites were reused after habitation ceased for multiple purposes through the medieval period and later, and that the overall landscape of Hegranes has been subject to significant erosion and alteration over the course of its history. Most of the fornbyli were inhabited prior to ca. 950 AD, and several of them were relatively large during the 10th and 11th centuries, comparable in size to farms that would later become much larger and more successful. Others seem only to have been inhabited for a short time, perhaps as a temporary or seasonal work site. None show evidence of habitation much after ca. 1104, and from that time until after the late 18th century, many of the sites were rebuilt as farm infrastructure for livestock management, only to be finally abandoned and fall to ruin before the 20th century. Preliminary environmental analysis suggests two significant periods of erosion: prior to 1104, and after 1766, roughly corresponding to the periods when the use of the sites was changing. The relationship between mire development and site use will be further investigated in 2017, along with the character and timing of habitation at the remaining sites.
DOI: 10.18739/a2707wq05
title: Fornbyli Landscape and Archaeological Survey on Hegranes (FLASH) Interim Report 2015, Iceland

description: In 2015, the Fornbyli Landscape and Archaeological Survey on Hegranes (FLASH) project and the Skagafjordur Church and Settlement Survey (SCASS) conducted survey and excavation in and around known outlying ruins, archaeological places (fornbyli), and extensive fields at the farms of As, Keflavik, Egg, Hroarsdalur, Gardur, Helluland, and Keldudalur on Hegranes in Skagafjordur, North Iceland. The work was performed to meet the goals of the Skagafjordur Church and Settlement Survey (SCASS) and for Kathryn Catlin's doctoral dissertation research towards her PhD at Northwestern University. The FLASH research had two primary purposes: first, to locate, date, and to the extent possible, characterize the nature of the activities performed at the fornbyli locations; and second, to describe and understand the sequences of soil erosion and sediment deposition that have occurred on Hegranes, both near and distant from the fornbyli and the major farms, since the settlement of Iceland ca. 870 AD. Coring was performed at all seven farms with multiple objectives for both projects. At Keflavik, As, and Keldudalur, coring was employed to (1) determine the establishment date and extent of the medieval farm mounds near the farmstead center; (2) locate areas of human activity and measure soil depth in the fields immediately surrounding the medieval farm mounds; and (3) determine the dates, use, and environmental context of fornbyli at the margins of the modern farms. At Gardur and Hroarsdalur, coring concentrated on (1) the farm mounds and (2) the extensive nearby fields. At Egg and Helluland, coring was only undertaken at (3) two of the fornbyli. This document reports on (2) extensive field coring and (3) coring at the fornbyli. (1) Coring and excavations in the farm mounds fell under the purview of the main SCASS project and are reported elsewhere. Test pits at Minni-As and Tunfotur (on As) targeted the oldest locations of ash middens as determined from coring survey, and additional profiles at Minni-As and Thraelagerdi (on Keflavik) were placed to characterize erosion at a distance from human habitation. Limited finds (primarily faunals) were retrieved. Macrobotanical flotation samples were obtained from all pre-1300 contexts, along with radiocarbon samples when feasible. Preliminary interpretations of the work suggest that many fornbyli were constructed early and reused for multiple purposes through the medieval period and later, and that the overall landscape of Hegranes has been subject to significant erosion and landscape change over the course of its history. In particular, the timing of transitions from well-drained to boggy soils in low-lying areas will be investigated in 2016 and 2017.
DOI: 10.18739/a2zk55n63
title: Healy Lake Village Lithic Analysis

description: Lithic analysis of a data sample from the main excavation block at Healy Lake Village. Materials excavated 1967-1971.