Importance of berries in the Inuit biocultural system : a multidisciplinary investigation in the Canadian North ...

In the Canadian North, the fruits of berry producing species are a highly nutritious source of food available to both animals and humans. Although relatively well-documented in boreal and subarctic environments, little information on the ecology and cultural importance of berry species is available...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Boulanger-Lapointe, Noémie
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0351975
https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0351975
Description
Summary:In the Canadian North, the fruits of berry producing species are a highly nutritious source of food available to both animals and humans. Although relatively well-documented in boreal and subarctic environments, little information on the ecology and cultural importance of berry species is available for the Arctic. This research aims to fill that gap using archives, interviews, ecological monitoring as well as remote sensing tools. An overview of the different uses and roles of berry plants and berry picking as reported in close to 200 interviews conducted with Elders and active land users across Inuit Nunangat since the 1980s was compiled. Through extensive fieldwork and remote sensing analyses, local availability and animal consumption of berries were investigated in detail in the vicinity of Arviat, Nunavut. Finally, an overall assessment of berry productivity in the Canadian North was conducted using berry productivity data collected between 2007 and 2015 at 10 sites from Nain, Nunatsiavut, and Kugluktuk, ...