Collaborative Research: Prolonged Production and Trophic Transfer to Predators: Processes at the Inner Front of the Southeastern Bering Sea

OPP-9617236惠特利奇，得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校这个项目旨在检验这样一个假设，即白令海非锋面水域的内锋初级生产量的增加持续时间比上层混合层长，并且这种生产量在整个夏季为支持剪切鱼、鲑鱼和它们的浮游动物猎物的食物网提供了能源。为了验证这一假设，拟议的合作研究将收集和解释对内锋附近的物理和生物特征的观测，以确定真光带中营养物质的可用性，导致营养物质垂直通量增加的物理过程，初级生产力，近地表浮游动物和其他浮游动物群体的分布、丰度和营养生态，剪切水的分布、丰度和觅食生态，以及从浮游植物到锋面以外的剪贴水的营养途径中稳定的同位素富集量。拟议的研究之所以重要，是因为它将首次审查水华爆发后初级生产中内锋的物理过程，侧重于这种扩大生产的生态作用，并将海鸟跨层迁徙模式的演变与产生可预测猎物来源的生物物理过程联系起来。

ABSTRACT OPP-9617236 WHITLEDGE, TERRY UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AUSTIN This project is designed to test the hypothesis that elevated primary production at the inner front continues longer than in the upper mixed layer of non-frontal waters in the Bering Sea, and that this production provides an energy source throughout the summer for a food web that supports shearwaters, salmon, and their zooplankton prey. To test this hypothesis, the proposed collaborative research will collect and interpret observations on physical and biological features in the vicinity of the inner front to determine the availability of nutrients in the euphotic zone, the physical processes responsible for enhanced vertical flux of nutrients, primary production, the distribution, abundance and trophic ecology of near-surface swarms of euphausiids and other zooplankton, the distribution, abundance, and foraging ecology of shearwaters, and by stable isotope enrichment in trophic pathways from phytoplankton to shearwaters at and away from the front. The proposed research is important because it will be the first examination of the physical processes of the inner front in post-bloom primary production, focus on the ecological role of this extended production, and relate the evolution of transequatorial migration patterns of seabirds to biophysical processes that create predictable sources of prey.