A Major Ecosystem Shift in the Northern Bering Sea

Until recently, northern Bering Sea ecosystems were characterized by extensive seasonal sea ice cover, high water column and sediment carbon production, and tight pelagic-benthic coupling of organic production. Here, we show that these ecosystems are shifting away from these characteristics. Changes...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Grebmeier, Jacqueline M., Overland, James E., Moore, Sue E., Farley, Ed V., Carmack, Eddy C., Cooper, Lee W., Frey, Karen E., Helle, John H., McLaughlin, Fiona A., McNutt, S. Lyn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2006
Subjects:
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Bering Sea
Pacific
Sea ice
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1121365
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1121365
Description
Summary:Until recently, northern Bering Sea ecosystems were characterized by extensive seasonal sea ice cover, high water column and sediment carbon production, and tight pelagic-benthic coupling of organic production. Here, we show that these ecosystems are shifting away from these characteristics. Changes in biological communities are contemporaneous with shifts in regional atmospheric and hydrographic forcing. In the past decade, geographic displacement of marine mammal population distributions has coincided with a reduction of benthic prey populations, an increase in pelagic fish, a reduction in sea ice, and an increase in air and ocean temperatures. These changes now observed on the shallow shelf of the northern Bering Sea should be expected to affect a much broader portion of the Pacific-influenced sector of the Arctic Ocean.

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