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Date of Award

Spring 2024

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Studies

First Advisor

Hatch, Marco B. A.

Second Advisor

Bingham, Brian L., 1960-

Third Advisor

Augustine, Skye

Abstract

Indigenous Peoples have been gathering foods using traditional technologies since time immemorial. Indigenous Peoples are intertwined with the environment by practicing traditional technologies and transmitting Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) within their communities. Since the beginning of time Indigenous People have interworking relationships with the natural world, these relationships are a result of thousands of years of transmitting TEK about the environment and traditional food systems. Clam gardens are one example of traditional mariculture that increases the optimal habitat for clams, increases biomass, and clam density. In addition to clam garden beaches providing productive habitats for clams, the clam garden rock wall is an intertidal structure that houses several species of non-clam, rock-dwelling Coast Salish foods. Research including clam gardens include many studies on clams. This research is focused on understanding the complexity and environmental parameters of rocky beaches and clam garden rock walls and how these factors influence the availability of non-clam Coast Salish foods. Our guiding research question was: Do habitat complexity, biotic, and abiotic factors influence the availability of intertidally sourced Coast Salish foods? We hypothesized that temperature would influence biomass. Additionally, we hypothesized that transects with greater habitat complexity (measured in rugosity) would have greater biomass. We also predicted that clam garden rock walls would have greater Coast Salish food availability because the rock walls are complex places to house rock dwelling species. We conducted 10 x 2 meter intertidal transect beach surveys to compare the available Coast Salish foods that can be harvested from clam garden rock walls and rocky intertidal beaches. Surveys included measuring habitat complexity using a rugosity chain, measuring water flow, and identifying and measuring the length of the invertebrates included in this study. These surveys were conducted in the traditional territory of the Hul'qumi'num and WSÁNEĆ communities, whose territory includes what is now called the Southern Gulf Islands of B.C., Canada. Hul'qumi'num communities include Cowichan Tribes, Halalt, Lyackson, Ts'uubaa-asatx, Stz'uminus, and Penelakut First Nations. The WSÁNEĆ communities, which includes Tsartlip, Tseycum, Pauquachin, and Tsawout First Nations. Increased research on Coast Salish food availability (defined as biomass) on clam garden rock walls and rocky intertidal beaches demonstrates how abiotic and biotic factors influence the biomass of intertidally gathered Coast Salish foods. Intertidally sourced foods gathered in rocky habitats and clam garden rock walls at low tide include green sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis), rough keyhole limpets (Diodora aspera), gumboot chitons (Cryptochiton stelleri), and red rock crabs (Cancer productus). We performed 38 intertidal surveys and measured the length of over 600 individual invertebrates, habitat complexity, temperature, algae cover, salinity, and dissolved oxygen. Additionally, we performed a clod card experiment to estimate water flow. A length to weight linear regression analysis was used to determine the biomass of each species and the biomass of all individuals was combined to get the total food availability (biomass) for each transect. We hypothesized that food availability would be influenced by habitat complexity and temperature, and that clam garden rock walls would have similar characteristics to the beaches with high habitat complexity. Included in this study are fifteen species of Coast Salish foods. We used linear models to estimate the biomass of each species. A generalized linear model was used to analyze the data, which revealed that transects with greater habitat complexity and lower water flow had greater biomass, this includes transects that are both clam garden rock wall transects and non-wall rocky beaches. This study shows the cultural importance of clam gardens and Coast Salish foods gathered from rocky beaches and how habitat complexity and waterflow influence Coast Salish intertidal food availability.

Type

Text

Publisher

Western Washington University

OCLC Number

1437907375

Subject – LCSH

Clam culture--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Food sovereignty--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Traditional ecological knowledge--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Intertidal ecology--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Indians of North America--Food--History

Geographic Coverage

Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Format

application/pdf

Genre/Form

masters theses

Language

English

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

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