Understanding Ecosystem Processes in the Bering Sea: The BEST-BSIERP Program

The North Pacific Research Board and the National Science Foundation are supporting a comprehensive 5 year, $52 million study of the seasonally ice covered eastern Bering Sea ecosystem which began in 2007. This study integrates the NSF Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST) and the NPRB Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program (BSIERP). Nearly 100 scientists are linked through a vertically integrated process and modeling research program encompassing atmospheric forcing and physics to economic and social impacts on people and communities. The program is organized around five (non exclusive) central hypotheses:

Physical forcing: Climate-induced changes in physical forcing will modify the availability and partitioning of food for all trophic levels through bottom-up processes.

Physics structures trophic relationships: Climate and ocean conditions influencing water temperature, circulation patterns and domain boundaries impact fish reproduction, survival and distribution, the intensity of predator-prey relationships and the location of zoogeographic provinces through bottom-up processes.

Ecosystem controls are dynamic: Multiple cold or warm years may switch control of the Bering Sea pelagic ecosystem between top down and bottom up as primary production is aligned (or not) with their major euphausiid and zooplankton consumers. (The Oscillating Control Hypothesis).

Location matters: Climate and ocean conditions influence circulation patterns and domain boundaries which in turn will affect the distribution, frequency and persistence of fronts and other prey-concentrating features. Productivity and foraging success of marine birds and mammals is largely through bottom-up processes.

Commercial and subsistence fisheries reflect climate: Climate-ocean conditions will change and thus affect the abundance and distribution of commercial and subsistence fisheries and the humans that depend on them.

Three field years have now been completed, with at-sea work occurring from February through October. Observations in this dynamic system have already found that winter ice cover was extensive compared to the previous decade, accompanied by a widespread 'cold pool' which acts as an important structuring element influencing many processes in the Bering Sea. This presentation will highlight important insights gained from ongoing field observations and linked modeling activities, the early synthesis of results, and their potential connections with the Arctic system.