Abstract
Abstract Throughout the past two decades, the number of studies examining the adaptive capacity of Arctic communities in the context of climate change has been increasing; however, little is known about Arctic communities’ ability to adapt to certain emerging changes, such as increased shipping activity. To address this knowledge gap, this study systematically analyses published scientific articles on community adaptive capacity in circumpolar Arctic, including articles published in Russian which may not be captured in English-only reviews. Throughout this review, the study focuses on three areas: the development of the adaptive capacity framework; the conditions that enable community adaption abilities; and the extent to which shipping developments are addressed in the literature. This study demonstrates that the adaptive capacity framework has been significantly developed both theoretically and methodologically and is broadly used to address new types of climatic and non-climatic changes. Though the impacts from the shipping development are discussed in some studies, there is a clear need for further examination of coastal communities’ ability to adapt to such changes. Additionally, the study reveals limitations in the application of the Western conceptual terminology when exploring community-based research by Russian scholars.
Highlights
Arctic communities face multiple cross-scale changes in socio-economic, political, environmental and cultural systems that have cascading impacts on local community viability
In addition to the lack of knowledge on shipping impacts in Arctic communities, the Russian local communities and the Russian context are still understudied by Arctic scholars (Ford, McDowell, & Pearce, 2015) and less is known about their capacity to adapt to climateinduced changes
In order to examine how the adaptive capacity of Arctic communities is understood in the Western and Russian literature, this study aims to (1) examine the status of adaptive capacity knowledge pertaining to local Arctic communities in the context of ongoing and emerging climatic and non-climatic change; (2) understand what conditions enable community adaptation and (3) examine whether and how the shipping development is addressed in those studies
Summary
Arctic communities face multiple cross-scale changes in socio-economic, political, environmental and cultural systems that have cascading impacts on local community viability. In addition to the lack of knowledge on shipping impacts in Arctic communities, the Russian local communities and the Russian context are still understudied by Arctic scholars (Ford, McDowell, & Pearce, 2015) and less is known about their capacity to adapt to climateinduced changes. This disparity exists despite the fact that Russia represents nearly half the Arctic geographically and almost 40% of the Arctic demographically (Shestak, Shcheka, & Klochkov, 2019). In order to examine how the adaptive capacity of Arctic communities is understood in the Western and Russian literature, this study aims to (1) examine the status of adaptive capacity knowledge pertaining to local Arctic communities in the context of ongoing and emerging climatic and non-climatic change; (2) understand what conditions enable community adaptation and (3) examine whether and how the shipping development is addressed in those studies
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