Scales of Vulnerability and Resilience in Human Settlement of the Kuril Islands

The Kuril Islands in the Northwest Pacific present formidable challenges to human settlement and persistence in the face of geographic insularity, 'shallow' ecosystems, volcanism, earthquakes, tsunamis, and climate changes. Interdisciplinary research by the Kuril Biocomplexity Project documents the relationship between human settlement history, environmental variability, and changing socio-economic relations within and beyond the 1100-km-long island chain.