US Liaison Activity for the international ESSAS Program

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Funds are provided to establish a Liaison Activity for the US section of the Ecosystem Studies of Sub-Arctic Seas (ESSAS) program. This will support the administrative activities of the US Co-Chair of ESSAS and facilitate communications between the US programs associated with ESSAS and the ESSAS Project Office in Bergen, Norway. These programs include MENU, a joint Norwegian-US comparative study (Marine Ecosystems of Norway and the US) and BEST, the newly funded Bering Sea Ecosystem Study (BEST) Program. Additional ESSAS programs involving US scientists are in the planning phase. ESSAS was founded to facilitate the use of comparative studies of the sub-arctic seas as a tool for predicting marine ecosystem response to climate change and its effects on the sustainability of fisheries. ESSAS is motivated by the realization that the sub-arctic seas are in the midst of significant, interrelated physical and biological change that may impact the sustainability of their production of fish and shellfish. These changes involve climate forcing of physical properties and processes in the ocean and the subsequent responses of organisms, from the level of individual physiology to the structure and function of ecosystems.