Eiders as Long Distance Connectors in Arctic Networks

TY - JOUR

T1 - Eiders as Long Distance Connectors in Arctic Networks

AU - Vestbo, Stine

AU - Hindberg, Claus

AU - Olesen, Jens Mogens

AU - Funch, Peter

PY - 2019/7

Y1 - 2019/7

N2 - As hunters and gatherers, humans have always exploited a wide variety of natural resources. Hunting, in particular, focuses upon individual species. The relationships between human and game are most often seen as isolated entities, for example, human–bison, human–whale, human–seabird or human–mammoth. However, hunting interactions are embedded in large and complex ecological networks. Seabirds such as the common eider (Somateria mollissima) have been and are still being hunted by both indigenous people of the Arctic and Europeans. Due to anthropogenic pressures, including hunting, several common eider populations have declined during the 20th century, even as much as up to 10-fold. Here, we review the ecological role of the common eider in Arctic networks and the diversity of human–eider interactions, underlining its importance for both humans and nonhumans. We place these interactions in a wider ecological context and discuss how human activities affecting eiders propagate through the Arctic ecological network and can cause far-reaching ecological effects.

AB - As hunters and gatherers, humans have always exploited a wide variety of natural resources. Hunting, in particular, focuses upon individual species. The relationships between human and game are most often seen as isolated entities, for example, human–bison, human–whale, human–seabird or human–mammoth. However, hunting interactions are embedded in large and complex ecological networks. Seabirds such as the common eider (Somateria mollissima) have been and are still being hunted by both indigenous people of the Arctic and Europeans. Due to anthropogenic pressures, including hunting, several common eider populations have declined during the 20th century, even as much as up to 10-fold. Here, we review the ecological role of the common eider in Arctic networks and the diversity of human–eider interactions, underlining its importance for both humans and nonhumans. We place these interactions in a wider ecological context and discuss how human activities affecting eiders propagate through the Arctic ecological network and can cause far-reaching ecological effects.

KW - Somateria mollissima

KW - ecological network

KW - eiderdown

KW - exploitation

KW - subsistence

KW - PREDATION

KW - NORTHWEST-TERRITORIES

KW - DUCKLINGS SOMATERIA-MOLLISSIMA

KW - FOXES ALOPEX-LAGOPUS

KW - NESTING SUCCESS

KW - HUMAN DISTURBANCE

KW - ISLAND

KW - DIET

KW - COMMON EIDERS

KW - FOOD

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058668278&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1069397118806820

DO - 10.1177/1069397118806820

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1069-3971

VL - 53

SP - 252

EP - 271

JO - Cross-Cultural Research

JF - Cross-Cultural Research

IS - 3

ER -