Funds are provided to collect, quality control, analyze, and distribute to all BEST investigators the core physical and chemical observations collected on the BEST summer cruise as a service component of the larger ecosystem program. The PIs will also examine the persistence of along- and across-shelf gradients of temperature, salinity, fluorescence, oxygen, nutrients and currents by integrating data from the hydrographic surveys in summer with trajectories from satellite-tracked drifters, data from other cruises, and data from long-term moorings (funded elsewhere).
This award supported participation on all of the Bering Sea Ecosystem Study (BEST) research cruises (2 cruises per year in 2008, 2009, and 2010). The goal of this project was to better understand physical, chemical and biological connections within the ecosystem, and how the presence or absence of seasonal sea-ice impacts those connections throughout the spring and summer. As the hydrographic team, we conducted conductivity, temperature and depth profiles (CTD casts) and water sampling, analyzed the collected salinity, nutrient and oxygen samples, coordinated the water collection activities of the other PI groups, deployed satellite-tracked drifters, and maintained and took calibration samples for several underway sampling systems attached to the ship’s flow-through seawater system. Data were processed and provided to the BEST data managers. Outreach was coordinated through the BEST program office, and included visits to local communities in Alaska, development of educational material for K-12 students, maintaining web pages, interviews with teachers-at-sea and local news channels, and presentation of results in local papers and at events such as the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory ‘Polar Week’. This research supported a graduate student and three summer interns. Results from these studies appeared in at least 12 peer reviewed journal articles, with additional articles in review. Many articles appeared in a special issue on the Bering Sea Program (Deep-Sea Research II, Vol. 65-70). A second special issue on the program is in press, and a third special issue is in preparation (http://bsierp.nprb.org/results/publications.html). These field efforts provided important new findings on the controls of secondary and fish populations (Hunt et al., 2011), new understanding on physical forcing in the Bering Sea ecosystem (Stabeno et al., 2012a, 2012b) and how this ecosystem compares to other marine ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean (Hunt et al., 2010). Hunt, Jr., G.L., B.M. Allen, R.P. Angliss, T. Baker, N. Bond, G. Buck, G.V. Byrd, K.O. Coyle, A. Devol, D.M. Eggers, L. Eisner, R.A. Feely, S. Fitzgerald, L.W. Fritz, E.V. Gritsay, C. Ladd, W. Lewis, J. Mathis, C.W. Mordy, F. Mueter, J. Napp, E. Sherr, D. Shull, P. Stabeno, M.A. Stepanenko, S. Strom, and T.E. Whitledge, 2010: Status and trends of the Bering Sea region, 2003-2008. In Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean, 2003-2008, S. M. McKinnell and M. J. Dagg (eds.), PICES Special Publication 4, 196-267. Hunt, Jr., G. L., K.O. Coyle, L. Eisner, E.V. Farley, R. Heintz, F. Mueter, J.M. Napp, J. E. Overland, P.H. Ressler, S. Salo, and P. J. Stabeno, 2011: Climate impacts on eastern Bering Sea foodwebs: A synthesis of new data and an assessment of the Oscillating Control Hypothesis. ICES J. Mar. Sci., 68(6), doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fsr036, 1230–1243. Stabeno, P.J., E. Farley, N. Kachel, S. Moore, C. Mordy, J.M. Napp, J.E. Overland, A.I. Pinchuk, and M.F. Sigler, 2012a: A comparison of the physics of the northern and southern shelves of the eastern Bering Sea and some implications for the ecosystem. Deep-Sea Res. II, 65–70, doi: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2012.02.019, 14–30. Stabeno, P.J., N.B. Kachel, S.E. Moore, J.M. Napp, M. Sigler, A. Yamaguchi, and A.N. Zerbini, 2012b: Comparison of warm and cold years on the southeastern Bering Sea shelf and some implications for the ecosystem. Deep-Sea Res. II, 65–70, doi: 10.1016/j.dsr2.2012.02.020, 31–45.
