free download - University Press of Colorado

Hazards, Impacts, and Resilience among Hunter-Gatherers
1.1. The Kuril Islands. Illustration by Ben Fitzhugh, based on cartographic projection by
Adam Freeburg.
of land-based plant and animal taxa limited in their ability to disperse across
wide channels with fast marine currents. As a result, the islands from Iturup
northeast to Onekotan have relatively low terrestrial biodiversity and are dominated
by tundra meadow and alpine ecosystems and a few terrestrial mammals
uncharacteristically good at colonizing new lands, such as fox and vole. Birds,
by contrast, are abundant and diverse in the absence of most predators, and the
Kurils support dozens of species of resident seabirds and migratory waterfowl
(Hacker 1951). Marine mammals are also well represented today around the
shores and near-shore waters of many of the Kuril Islands. Sea lions, fur seals,
and harbor seals are the most common species today, especially in the central
islands, where they haul out in large numbers and raise pups in the summer.
Sea otters are abundant in some areas—especially around the northern and
southern islands—while absent in others. Their distribution seems to reflect
the ecological differences in shellfish and fish productivity and diversity, which
are also highest in the northern and southern ends of the chain compared to
the center. The resulting ecological picture is one of higher taxonomic diversity
in both terrestrial and marine resources in the southernmost and northernmost
21