United States Geological Survey: Polar Bear Research

I come from a village named Tuntutuliaq, which translates to “the land of many caribou” in the Alaska native language of Yup’ik. I lived there until the age of 19 when I went to the University of Alaska Anchorage to study Civil Engineering. It wasn’t until my junior year in high school when I decided that I would go to college. Before that, I would have never considered going for higher education. I strongly encourage anyone who has even the slightest interest in science, math or engineering to participate. The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program (ANSEP) impacted my life so greatly and for that I am forever grateful.

Tuntutuliaq is a relatively new village. There was an ancient village named Qinaq, just a few miles east of current location of Tuntutuliaq. Elders say the ancient village, Qinaq, had a large population with many family sod houses before the time of great sickness that cut the Alaska Native population by more than half. For many reasons, a war between the villages broke out and families in Qinaq were afraid and left the village to find a new place to reside, resulting in multiple new villages including Tuntutuliaq, which currently has a population of about 450. The village today relies heavily on subsistence living. Living entirely on the local stores and heating fuel is nearly impossible for most of the residents due to how high the prices are and the lack of jobs. There are no roads that connect to the main road system in Anchorage to the rest of the communities in eastern Alaska. You have to ship everything through air or water making fuel and goods expensive. To give you an idea, a gallon of milk can go for 15 dollars.

Education in the rural communities is also poor. Many students may have a fifth-grade reading level when they get into their first year in high school because of a lack of good caring teachers, language barriers, overall enthusiasm for education, and many other reasons. You don’t see many students going to college or training. Many of the students that go to college perform poorly because of reasons mentioned above. When students are getting poor grades, you can see how it effects their view on education. “I suck at school, how can I even think about college.” “I will always get bad grades.” “College won’t be for me because I can’t perform well in school.” “College is only for geniuses.” I had similar mind set before I went to Acceleration Academy.

I was given an awesome opportunity to work with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) made possible by the partnership between ANSEP and Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders of Wildlife is sponsoring ANSEP students every summer from 2016–2022 to perform polar bear research. I was one of the students fortunate enough to be a part of the research. I never thought I would work for USGS. At this point in my early steps towards a career, I had two internships with the United States Forest Service and a position by Calista, an Alaska Native corporation, both of which are partners of ANSEP. Then I had an opportunity to work with many polar bear biologists such as Dr. Karyn Rode at USGS. This is important science on the longevity of polar bears and the effects of the quickly changing climate on polar bears. Polar bears depend on sea ice to hunt and that ice is receding very quickly as our Earth warms.

One of my main projects was running chemical analyses on polar bear blood serum through a machine so that we are able to determine whether the bear ate or not in the past 7–10 days based on the ratio of urea to creatinine. We have serum from two bear populations, Chukchi and Southern Beaufort Seas, over three decades and can use this data to track changes in food availability. The serums were collected primarily during the spring time when seals should be abundant and the bears should be feeding more frequently than every 7–10 days due to seals molting and raising offspring. If they are going longer than this period without feeding, it is likely a signal that prey availability is reduced because of the loss of sea ice. Both of the subpopulations of polar bears are experiencing drastic loss of sea ice, making it more difficult for the bears to hunt. This study is important to understand the effects of climate change on the bears’ foraging behavior, and the ultimate change in the conditions of the bears, so that we can better protect their habitats moving forward.

Another project I was working on was prepping polar bear hair to be analyzed for isotopes of carbon and nitrogen. Isotopes, as you may know, are naturally occurring variations of elements. They vary in the environment in predictable ways. For example, carbon and nitrogen isotopes in polar bear hair can tell us what trophic level their prey came from and whether any of the foods were from terrestrial rather than marine environments. Dr. Karyn Rode will be able to estimate the percent of walrus, bowhead whale and seal in the polar bear diets from hair. Polar bears grow hair typically in June through August, so mostly the isotopes in the hair will represent what they ate during that time frame. The hair continues to grow some into the fall, so it will represent what the bear ate in the fall to a lesser degree. This is helpful because we don’t have the opportunity to observe most bears in the summer and fall and learning more about what they are eating then whether diets have changed over the past several decades helps us understand what prey are important.

Acceleration Academy is a component of ANSEP, a program that gives Alaska Natives the opportunity to be excited about STEM education starting early on in middle school. ANSEP engrains Determination, Effort, and Approach at an early age and it pushes them to continue and prosper in education all the way up to the doctorate level. I myself am going to get my doctorates degree! Amazing to say that being that I would have never considered going to college a few years ago and also being Alaska Native from a village with an unfamiliar name of Tuntutuliaq. Students who go through the programs offered by ANSEP will develop life-long friendships; friendships that are driven by success and education. ANSEP also gives amazing professional career opportunities with partnered organizations such as Defenders of Wildlife to ensure a fulfilling career outside of school. ANSEP also gave me this awesome opportunity to work with United States Geological Survey and their Polar Bear Research team, to make a difference in the scientific research working to better understand and protect polar bears.

-Cody

Defenders of Wildlife sponsors one university level ANSEP student each summer — Cody worked on with USGS on polar bear research in the summer of 2017.

Cody is one of the founders of the nonprofit Paimiu Development:

“We are all passionate about making rural communities a better and easier place to live. There are many hardships that come along with living in a developing community. We also want to preserve the land for the future generations through waste systems and renewable energy.”