0.5-day CCCC Topic Session (S10) at

PICES X, Victoria, B.C., Canada
Tuesday, October 9, 2001, 1:30 p.m.

Convenors: Suam Kim (Korea), Allen Macklin (U.S.A.), Vladimir Radchenko (Russia), Sei-Ichi Saitoh (Japan)

This half-day symposium will examine the nature of climate changes in the Bering Sea over the past decade and the effects of these changes on the ecosystem.  There is widespread recognition that significant changes occurred in the marine ecosystem over the last decade, possibly due to shifts in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation and influences of El Niño-La Niña.  The character of the Bering Sea seasonal ice pack recently has changed from the “warm” phase that persisted since the regime shift of the late 1970s to one that exhibits rapid buildup in winter but earlier retreat in spring.  Vast colonies of coccolithophores began appearing on the Bering Sea shelf in the summer of 1997 and have recurred each summer since.  Salmon stocks recruited in much lower numbers in the last few years than were forecast.  Pollock distribution and abundance have varied with fluctuations in sea ice.  Shifts have also been observed in crab, seabird, and marine mammal populations.  The symposium will examine ecosystem change in the western and eastern Bering Sea, identifying possible processes that effect change.  We are soliciting papers for oral and poster presentation.

Selected papers will be published in a special issue of Progress in Oceanography.  Authors are expected to bring a completed manuscript to Victoria and complete revisions by November 15, 2001.  If review and final revision can be completed by March 1, 2002, publication might be scheduled before PICES XI.  Further information on the publications will be obtained from co-conveners or the Secretariat.