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Assessing past ecological tolerance of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) in northwest Alaska using vertebra width and length reconstructions

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Abstract

Archaeological Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) remains were used to assess the past effects of warming and cooling climatic events on size and length of these two fish. It was predicted that climatic warming would result in greater overlap of the geographic ranges of salmon species, and increased saffron cod mean length. Ichthyofaunal remains were derived from two archaeological sites spanning 2000 years representing four temporal periods. Global and regional paleo-climactic datasets were used to define broad climatic trends for each period. Vertebral width was measured to group archaeological salmon specimens into three categories: (1) pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka), (2) all salmon species, and (3) chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and chum (Oncorhynchus keta). Saffron cod premaxillae were measured to reconstruct total length at capture. During the onset and peak of the Little Ice Age (AD 1200s–1800s), mean salmon vertebral width was smaller, and size classes primarily represented pink/sockeye salmon, which supports observations that climatic fluctuations influence current and past salmon distributions. Saffron cod measurements suggested that fisheries primarily targeted spawning adult populations, while mean total length did not coincide with periods of warming or cooling. This paper demonstrates the applicability of morphometric methods in assessing past species ecological tolerance in northwestern Alaska and adds further resolution to zooarchaeological taxonomic abundance values.

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Acknowledgements

This research could not have happened without permission and support from the Shaktoolik Native Corporation. John and Chris Darwent directed excavations at Shaktoolik and were instrumental in developing the premise of this paper, and Chris provided editorial comments on an initial draft. I am grateful to the 2014–2018 field crews (Kelly Eldridge, Diana Ewing, Chantelle Nakarok, Desiree Rock, Levi Sagoonik, Andrew Scott, Ashley Sookiayak, and Andrew Tremayne) for assisting with excavation, and to the UC Davis interns for help with faunal sorting and cataloging. The manuscript benefited from editorial and statistical advice from Sarah Adcock. The draft was greatly improved by comments from two anonymous reviewers. Photographs were graciously taken by Kandis Eliott at the UW Zoological Museum. Thank you to Arlene Fradkin, Kenneth Ritchie, and Harry Robson for the opportunity to contribute to this volume, and to Virginia Butler for hosting the 20th meeting of the ICAZ Fish Remains Working Group in Portland.

Funding

Funding was provided by the North Pacific Research Board, Graduate Studies at the University of California, Davis, and the Fonds de Recherche Québécois Société et Culture.

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    Jason I. Miszaniec

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Miszaniec, J.I. Assessing past ecological tolerance of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) in northwest Alaska using vertebra width and length reconstructions. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 103 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01339-8

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