Major Ecosystem Shift in the Northern Bering Sea

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 311; no. 5766; pp. 1461 - 1464
• 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: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 10.03.2006; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Aquatic ecosystems; Arctic Regions; Biological and medical sciences; Changes; Ducks; Ecosystem; Fisheries science; Fishes; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Geologic Sediments - chemistry; Ice; Ice Cover; Mammalia; Marine; Marine ecology; Marine ecosystems; Marine mammals; Oceans; Oxygen - analysis; Pacific Ocean; Population Dynamics; Sea ice; Sea water; Sea water ecosystems; Seas; Seasons; Synecology; Temperature; Temperature effects; Walruses; Whales; Bering Sea; Pacific Ocean; North Pacific; Arctic Regions; Arctic Ocean; PN, Arctic Ocean; IN, Bering Sea; Climate; Environmental factor; Change; Climatic condition; Marine environment; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Biocenosis; Seasonal variation; Ecosystem; Pisces; Aves; Climate modification; Sea ice
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1121365

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.