WHEELER, PATRICIA OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
This project will use biologic data collected in 1994 on the joint US-Canadian Arctic Ocean Section cruise in the Arctic Ocean to verify an ecosystem model for the Chukchi Sea. The model will focus on the role of pelagic organisms in the ecosystem. The results will be used to examine the export of inorganic nutrients, particulate and dissolved organic matter from the continental shelf into the deep basin. By understanding the factors that regulate biological processes on the shelf, the model will facilitate prediction of the effects of changes in physical parameters such as climate on the magnitude and fate of shelf production and exchange of nutrients between shelf and basin. The results of this project will provide input for planning a large Phase 2 field program of the Shelf Basin Interactions project in 2002 in the same geographic area.
