Abstract: The TUKISIK (Tukisigasuaqatigit: Understanding together) is a scientific program, ongoing since 2014, concerning human-environment interactions, reinforcing links between scientists and several communities.

Abstract: “[Daniel Pauly] is an iconoclastic fisheries scientist ... who is so decidedly global in his life and outlook that he is nearly a man without a country.”—NEW YORK TIMES “Daniel Pauly is a friend whose work has inspired me for years.”—TED DANSONDaniel Pauly is a living legend in the world of marine biology. He coined the influential term “shifting baselines,” in which knowledge of environmental disaster fades over time, leading to a misguided understanding of our world. He blew the whistle on the global fishing industry, alerting the public to the devastation of overfishing. And he developed data-driven research methods that led to groundbreaking discoveries. Daniel Pauly is also a man whose life was shaped by struggle. Born after the Second World War to a white French woman and Black American GI in Paris, Pauly’s childhood has been described as Dickensian. His father left before he was born and his mother, whose family did not accept her and her mixed-race son, fell prey to a manipulative Swiss couple who abducted Pauly under murky circumstances. He was taken to Switzerland, where he was treated cruelly as the couple’s servant.  Pauly escaped to Germany to attend university and, as a young man, travelled to the United States during the 1969 civil rights movement, where he met his father’s family and experienced a political and racial reawakening. From there, he went on to have one of the most decorated careers in the field of marine biology. The Ocean’s Whistleblower “weaves together the challenges of marine research with an astonishing coming-of-age story” (Andrew Sharpless, Oceana) and is told through interviews with colleagues, friends, and Pauly himself. A brilliant book about a brilliant man, The Ocean’s Whistleblower finally profiles one of the most influential scientists of our time.

Abstract: An ecological community includes all individuals of all species that interact within a single patch or local area of habitat. Understanding the outcome of host–parasite interactions and predicting disease dynamics is particularly challenging at this biological scale because the different component species interact both directly and indirectly in complex ways. Current shifts in biodiversity due to global change, and its associated modifications to biological communities, will alter these interactions, including the probability of disease emergence, its dynamics over time, and its community-level consequences. Birds are integral component species of almost all natural communities. Due to their ubiquity and specific life history traits, they are defining actors in the ecology, evolution, and epidemiology of parasitic species. To better understand this role, this chapter examines the relative importance of birds and parasites in natural communities, revisiting basic notions in community ecology. The impact of changes in diversity for disease dynamics, including the debate surrounding dilution and amplification effects are specifically addressed. By considering the intrinsic complexities of natural communities, the importance of combining data from host and parasite communities to better understand how natural systems function over time and space is highlighted. The different elements in each section of the chapter are illustrated with brief, concrete examples from avian species, with a detailed example from marine bird communities in which Lyme disease bacteria circulate.

Abstract: Qikirtajuaq is a long island facing the Inuit village of Akulivik on the northeastern coast of Hudson Bay (Canada) that is rich in archaeological sites. Kangiakallak-1 (JeGn-2), one of the main sites on this island, is a large multicomponent site that includes Dorset and Thule Inuit winter houses. This study documents the dynamics of palaeoenvironmental conditions in the successive occupations of the Kangiakallak-1 settlement based on plant macrofossils, pollen and non-pollen palynomorph analyses and archaeological research. The data indicate that Dorset inhabitants constructed their dwelling at about 772 cal. a BP. The site was reused by the Thule Inuit a few decades later, starting at about 671 cal. a BP. Thus, Kangiakallak-1 is one of the few sites, at least in Nunavik (northern Quebec, Canada), that were rapidly reoccupied by the Thule Inuit after the departure of the Dorset inhabitants, which indicates a possible overlap between the two cultures in the Akulivik region. The palaeoecological data show that both Dorset and Thule inhabitants left clear footprints at the local scale in the form of several nitrophilous species that became established in and near the houses and persisted over a long period. The deposition of domestic waste (including bone fragments, skin, burnt fat and charcoal fragments) inside the subterranean dwellings fertilized the soil and led to the growth of unique nitrophilous plants. These changes transformed the houses into exceptional floristic refuges.