| Summary: | Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2021 Rocky, nearshore ecosystems are diverse and dynamic environments that function as the link between land and sea and provide important resources for people. In this two-part thesis, I first examined rocky intertidal ecological communities to better understand biotic and abiotic drivers in this system, and then I investigated the abundance of pinto abalone (Haliotis kamtschatkana), a key subsistence resource that local community members identified as the most important because of limited harvest and drastic declines. Pinto abalone are tied to Haida subsistence, culture, and spiritual identity and have been a traditional harvest species for the Haida people for millennia. Pinto abalone were harvested by non-Native fishermen through heavy commercial (1970-1996) and personal use harvest, causing a crash of the population. In the rocky intertidal I surveyed the upper and lower extents of major biobands, frequency of occurrence of sessile organisms, and abundance of mobile invertebrates across a vertical gradient at 18 sites near the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. A multivariate approach was used to identify the major drivers of rocky intertidal community composition and structure. Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) occupation time, average fetch, beach aspect, rugosity, and rock texture were all identified as influential forces for at least one tidal zone and/or biological metrics. Sea otters were not found to restructure the ecosystem, as they do in deeper kelp forest habitats. To assess the current viability of pinto abalone harvest, concerns about sustainability, and their ecological relationships, I partnered with local harvesters within the community of Hydaburg on Prince of Wales Island to combine Indigenous Knowledge about pinto abalone harvest with SCUBA surveys at historically productive traditional harvest sites. Only four (out of 17) of our shallow transects (2 x 20 m), which are within the depth range for traditional harvest methods, had legal-sized pinto ...
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