ABSTRACT
Climatic factors such as floods, storms, and extreme cold greatly affect human capacities to harvest and process animals used for food. If climate change occurs at large time and geographic scales in the future, even greater disruptions in the distribution and abundance of wildlife are expected. This will clearly have an impact on wildlife resources for economic and cultural sustenance. Mainland Alaska north of the Yukon River, including St. Lawrence and Little Diomede islands, contains considerable variation in climate, biota, and human cultures. The chapter explores the relationship of human populations to climatic and environmental conditions in this region. Evidence of climate change impacts on human populations in this region can be derived from three sources: archeological evidence in conjunction with paleo-environmental data, oral traditions about events occurring prior to contact, and historical and ethnographic observations and findings since contact.
