Data from: Regional ocean models indicate changing limits to biological invasions in the Bering Sea

• Main Authors: Amanda Droghini, Anthony Fischbach
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity 2019
• Subjects: marine biology; suitability modelling; Alaska; invasive species; extreme temperatures; Arctic; Bering Sea; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://search.dataone.org/view/urn:uuid:16c92c1b-0c27-483b-b144-558ed97f7b6a

Invasive species are one of the leading global conservation concerns because they can have strong, negative impacts on ecosystems, native species, and natural resources. To date, arctic regions have experienced a relatively low number of biological introductions. However, increases in water temperatures, reductions in sea ice, and projected increases in shipping traffic are expected to make arctic marine regions more susceptible to the arrival and colonization of new species. Our risk assessment for the Bering Sea sought to identify 1) which non-indigenous species (NIS) pose the greatest invasion risk; 2) which areas are most vulnerable to invasion; and 3) which ports are most likely to serve as an entry point into the eastern Bering Sea. About the data set: As part of this project, we created environmental suitability maps using downscaled climate models and species' temperature and salinity thresholds. For each species, we evaluated a) the number of weeks with suitable survival conditions; b) whether each species could survive year-round; c) the number of consecutive weeks with suitable reproductive conditions. We conducted these analyses for two, 10-year study periods: current (2003-2012) and future (2030-2039). 2. Species thresholds: 3. Bering Sea continental shelf: Shapefile of our study area. Required for running some R scripts (https://github.com/accs-uaa/bering-sea-marine-invasives). 4. All taxa rasters: Contains suitability predictions for each species, climate model, and study period that we considered. 5. Summary rasters: Individual taxa rasters were combined to evaluate the total number of species with suitable survival or reproduction conditions in the Bering Sea. This dataset includes model-averaged rasters and rasters for each model-study period combination. Summary rasters were not generated for the weekly survival analysis. Instead, patterns were visualized using a heatmap. The code is available on our GitHub. Looking for code? Head over to our GitHub repository: https://github.com/accs-uaa/bering-sea-marine-invasives