Alaskan stakeholder-defined research needs in the context of climate change

Abstract

Alaska residents are already feeling the tangible impacts of climate change and are concerned about future impacts. In response, they have generated a large quantity of documents that describe their climate change-related research needs. This paper reviews and codes 63 stakeholder-generated documents that address climate change research needs in Alaska in order to synthesize common research needs and assess gaps in needs assessment. We find that research needs related to infrastructure, economics, hazards and safety, and terrestrial ecosystem impacts are most frequently mentioned. The review identifies a current focus on broad-scale expert assessments, and a gap in local-scale and participatory approaches. The majority of identified information needs cross traditional disciplines and require interdisciplinary approaches. Finally, this research suggests that scientists, stakeholders, and information translators in Alaska engage in iterative dialog in order to better link scientific inquiry to practice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Climate Program Office [grant number NA11OAR4310141] with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This research was also supported by the Resilience and Adaptation IGERT Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.