SEARCH Projects

Workshops to Develop a Research Plan for the Ecosystem Studies of Sub-Arctic Seas Program

P I: Urban, SCOR, Department of Earth and Planetary [Science]

Abstract

The sub-arctic seas, including the Bering Sea, the Barents Sea, the Newfoundland/Labrador Shelf, and the Sea of Okhotsk, support some of the world's most productive fisheries, most of which are based on cod or pollock. With the exception of the Sea of Okhotsk, these seas also exchange water with the Arctic Ocean and, in some cases, modify water and salts as they flow from the North Pacific Ocean or North Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. In recent years, it has become evident that these seasonally ice-covered, subarctic seas are subject not only to interannual variation but also to decadal-scale and secular changes in climate. Thus, there is a need to assess how global change may affect the marine ecosystems of these subarctic seas and their ability to support productive fisheries.

An international workshop to assess the potential for developing a major research initiative that could focus on the most profitable approaches to these questions was held in Laguna Beach, California, in early September 2002. The participants in this workshop identified a need for an interdisciplinary, comparative study of the sub-arctic seas and their ability to support fisheries in the context of global change. We propose to convene two workshops to develop a Science Plan for the comparative studies program envisaged by the participants of the Laguna Beach Workshop. The goal of these workshops is to identify and prioritize the most important research questions concerning the potential effects of global change on these sub-arctic ecosystems, and to identify innovative approaches to answering these questions. An important product of the workshops will be the development of a Science Plan that could provide the basis for an Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) project. (The sub-arctic seas are not currently included in the GLOBEC project.) The Science Plan will also provide a framework for integration of sub-arctic marine ecosystem studies with the SEARCH (Study of Arctic Environmental Change) program.