Interdisciplinary Studies of the

The Bering Sea is a fascinating region. The name conjures up images of ice, marine mammals, severe weather, crab fisheries, Native villages, and all these do in fact describe the region. Noted as extremely productive at the upper trophic levels, the ecological basis for the Bering Sea’s teeming biota has long been a puzzle. The answers are emerging slowly, and much of the progress has come about through the kind of coordinated research which we now call an “ecosystem approach.” This section explores the evolution of such research and provides information on some of the significant interdisciplinary programs without trying to provide scientific details. Rather, the goals and achievements of the work are highlighted. There have been two approaches used in interdisciplinary studies of the Bering Sea: periodic long-term cruises and comprehensive year-round ecosystem studies. Long-term cruises were done periodically over repeated cruise tracks and the data were usually seasonally incomplete and not necessarily collected annually. Examples are the joint U.S.-Russian Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean ecosystems (BERPAC) cruises of the Akademik Korvolev (chapter 33, this volume) and the cruises of Hokkaido University’s training ship (T/S) Oshoro Maru (chapter 35, this volume). The former is carried out at four-year intervals, whereas the Oshoro Maru cruises are annual. The Oshoro Maru visits the Bering Sea as part of its northwestern Pacific cruise in late July of each year, with the cruise extending into August. The Russian long-term work by the Pacific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (TINRO) is another example of this approach. The second approach uses more comprehensive year-round ecosystem studies in a geographically restricted area. This approach was used in the Processes and Resources of the Bering Sea (PROBES) program (chapter 32, this volume), the Outer Continental Shelf Environment Assessment Program (OCSEAP) (chapter 36, this volume), and more recently, the Inner Shelf Transfer and Recycling (ISHTAR) program (chapter 31, this volume). These two approaches combined yield a data set which provide major insights into the dynamics of this complex marine area.

[1]  R. Beamish,et al.  Climate change and northern fish populations , 1995 .

[2]  James W. Hurrell,et al.  Decadal atmosphere-ocean variations in the Pacific , 1994 .

[3]  S. Henrichs,et al.  A time-series study of the spring bloom at the Bering Sea ice edge I. Physical processes, chlorophyll and nutrient chemistry , 1995 .

[4]  D. Irons,et al.  Breeding Status and Population Trends of Seabirds in Alaska in 1997 , 1998 .

[5]  E. Murphy,et al.  The paradox of pelagic food webs in the northern Bering Sea—I. Seabird food habits , 1987 .

[6]  A. Hollowed,et al.  Ecology of Juvenile Walleye Pollock, Theragra chalcogramma: Papers from the workshop "The Importance of Prerecruit Walleye Pollock to the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ecosystems" Seattle, Washington, 28-30 October 1993 , 1996 .

[7]  W. Bowen,et al.  Role of marine mammals in aquatic ecosystems , 1997 .

[8]  D. Rugh,et al.  A group of right whales seen in the Bering Sea in July 1996 , 1998 .

[9]  Sharon L. Smith,et al.  Spatial and temporal effects of salinity, temperature and chlorophyll on the communities of zooplankton in the southeastern Bering Sea. , 1984 .

[10]  A. Springer,et al.  Copepod-based food webs: auklets and oceanography in the Bering Sea , 1985 .

[11]  K. Tadokoro,et al.  Interannual–interdecadal variations in zooplankton biomass, chlorophyll concentration and physical environment in the subarctic Pacific and Bering Sea , 1997 .

[12]  Steven R. Hare,et al.  Decadal-scale regime shifts in the large marine ecosystems of the North-east Pacific: a case for historical science , 1994 .

[13]  K. Kenyon.  The sea otter in the eastern Pacific Ocean , 1975 .

[14]  C. Mcroy,et al.  The paradox of pelagic food webs in the northern Bering Sea—III. Patterns of primary production , 1993 .

[15]  V. Alexander,et al.  Oceanographic frontal structure and biological production at an ice edge , 1985 .

[16]  L. Eberhardt,et al.  STATUS OF THE PACIFIC WALRUS POPULATION, 1950–19891 , 1997 .

[17]  L. K. Coachman.  On the flow field in the Chirikov Basin , 1993 .

[18]  Tinker,et al.  Killer whale predation on sea otters linking oceanic and nearshore ecosystems , 1998, Science.

[19]  V. V. Lapko,et al.  New data about communities of plankton and nekton of the far‐eastern seas in connection with climate‐oceanological reorganization , 1996 .