Scientists at NSIDC: Shari Gearheard

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Research Scientist II

PhD, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2004

Shari Gearheard is based in Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada.

Specialties [top]

Human-environment interactions; traditional knowledge research; Arctic environment and change; Inuit knowledge; participatory research; innovative technologies and methodologies; linking indigenous and scientific knowledge

Recent Highlights and Upcoming Expeditions [top]

December 2009: Gearheard presented "Using Traditional Knowledge in Climate Change Decision Making" at the Inuit Circumpolar Council, an official side event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15).
June 2009: The BBC filmed Gearheard and Inuit hunters working on the Igliniit Project for a documentary, Frozen Planet, which is scheduled for release in 2011.
April 2008: "Silavut: Inuit Voices in a Changing World" opened, featuring Shari Gearheard's research in Inuit communities. The exhibit runs from April 15, 2008, through May 1, 2009, at the University of Colorado Museum in Boulder. For more information, see the University of Colorado Museum Web site.
February 2008: Natural History magazine, featured an article about Shari Gearheard's work in Nunavut, "A Change in the Weather" (PDF, 1.2 MB)
2007: A film crew stayed with Shari Gearheard and Andy Mahoney in Qaanaaq, Greenland, during their 2007 fieldwork. View the resulting documentary, "Inuit Isaannit Silaannaq," on the Kalaallit Nunaat Radioa TV Web site. (In Greenlandic; interviews with Gearheard and Mahoney are in English)
May 2007: Collaborated with Iñupiat whalers and Elders in Barrow, Alaska, to assess local sea ice conditions as part of the Siku-Inuit-Hila (Sea ice, people, and weather) project
March 2007: Collaborated with Inughuit hunters and Elders in Qaanaaq, Greenland to assess local sea ice conditions as part of the Siku-Inuit-Hila project
November 2006: Completed projects with the community of Clyde River, Nunavut, related to changing local sea ice and traditional knowledge of plants
February 2006: Finished appointment to the National Academy of Science "Designing an Arctic Observing Network" study committee
December 2005: Completed postdoctoral appointment at Harvard University with a fellowship from the NOAA Postdoctoral Program in Climate and Global Change
2005: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) released. Gearheard was co-lead author of Chapter 3, "The Changing Arctic: Indigenous Perspectives"

Upcoming Expeditions
Gearheard will lead the next field stage of the Siku-Inuit-Hila project in Clyde River, Nunavut, where the project team of Inuit, Inughuit, Iñupiat, and scientists will gather to study local-scale sea ice and sea ice changes.

Current Research [top]

Ongoing collaborative work with Inuit hunters and Elders to document Inuit knowledge of climate and environmental change
Characterizing local-scale sea ice and assessing local sea ice changes by linking Inuit knowledge and scientific measurements
Assessing changing weather and wind patterns at east coast of Baffin Island by linking Inuit knowledge and meteorological station data
Developing innovative data collection and management tools to help document, preserve, and communicate local and traditional environmental knowledge

Current Projects [top]

Bridging Perspectives from Remote Sensing and Inuit Communities on Changing Sea Ice Cover in the Baffin Bay Region

The Dynamics of Human-Sea Ice Relationships: Comparing Changing Environments in Alaska, Nunavut, and Greenland (also referred to as the "Siku-Inuit-Hila" project)

Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA)

Igliniit Project

Activities [top]

Member, Board of Trustees for the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS)/ Fondation Canadienne pour les Sciences du Climat et de l'Atmosphère (FCSCA)

Member, Scientific Committee, IGLO (International Action on GLObal Warming)

Volunteer Adult Literacy Instructor and Math Instructor, Arctic College, Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada

Member, Association of American Geographers (AAG)

Member, International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA)

Co-chair of the Clyde River Research Committee and the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre of Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada

Dog sledding and learning to train and care for Canadian Inuit dogs

Publications [top]

2010

Weatherhead, E., S. Gearheard, and R. G. Barry. 2010. Changes in weather persistence: Insight from Inuit knowledge. Global Environmental Change, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.02.002.

2009

Gearheard, S., M. Pocernich, R. Stewart, J. Sanguya, and H. P. Huntington. 2009. Linking Inuit Knowledge and Meteorological Station Observations to Understand Changing Wind Patterns at Clyde River, Nunavut. Climatic Change, doi: 10.1007/s10584-009-9587-1.

Mahoney, A., S. Gearheard, T. Oshima, and T. Qillaq. 2009. Sea ice thickness measurements from a community-based observing network. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 90(3): 370-377.

2008

Stroeve, J., M. Serreze, S. Drobot, S. Gearheard, M. Holland, J. Maslanik, W. Meier, T. Scambos. 2008. Arctic sea ice extent plummets in 2007. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 89: 13–14.

2007

Barry, R. G., R. Armstrong, T. Callaghan, J. Cherry, S. Gearheard, A. Nolin, D. Russell, and C. Zaeckler. 2007. Chapter 4: Snow. In Global outlook for ice and snow, ed. United Nations Environment Programme, 39-62. Hertfordshire, England: Earthprint.

Gearheard, S. and J. Shirley. 2007. Challenges in community-research relationships: Learning from natural science in Nunavut. Arctic 60(1): 62-74.

2006

Gearheard, S., W. Matumeak, I. Angutikjuaq, J. Maslanik, H. P. Huntington, J. Leavitt, D. Matumeak Kagak, G. Tigullaraq, and R. G. Barry. 2006. "It's not that simple": A collaborative comparison of sea ice environments, their uses, observed changes, and adaptations in Barrow, Alaska, USA, and Clyde River, Nunavut, Canada. Ambio 35(4): 203-211.

Meier, W. N., J. Stroeve, and S. Gearheard. 2006. Bridging perspectives from remote sensing and Inuit communities on changing sea ice cover in the Baffin Bay region. Annals of Glaciology 44(1): 433-438, doi:10.3189/172756406781811790.

2005

Gearheard, S. 2005. Using interactive multimedia to document and communicate inuit knowledge. Études/Inuit/Studies 29(1-2): 91-114.

Huntington, H. P., and S. Fox. 2005. The changing Arctic: Indigenous perspectives. In Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), eds. C. Symon, L. Arris, and B. Heal, 61-98. New York: Cambridge University Press.

2004

Huntington, H. P., T. V. Callaghan, S. Fox Gearheard, and I. Krupnik. 2004. Matching traditional and scientific observations to detect environmental change: A discussion on Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. Ambio 33(7): 18-23.

2003

Fox, S. 2003. When the weather is uggianaqtuq: Inuit observations of environmental change. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Geography Department Cartography Lab. Distributed by National Snow and Ice Data Center. CD-ROM.

Jolly, D., S. Fox, and N. Thorpe. 2003. Inuit and Inuvialuit knowledge of climate change in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. In Native Voices in Research: Northern and Native Studies, eds. J. Oakes and R. Riewe, 280-290. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Native Studies Press, University of Manitoba.

2002

Fox, S. 2002. "These are things that are really happening”: Inuit perspectives on the evidence and impacts of climate change in Nunavut. In The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic Environmental Change, eds. I. Krupnik and D. Jolly, 12-53. Fairbanks, Alaska: Arctic Research Consortium of the United States.

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