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

美国德克萨斯州奥斯汀特里大学Whitledge，邮编：9617236 该项目的目的是测试的假设，即在内部前端的初级生产持续时间比在白令海的非锋面沃茨的上部混合层，这种生产提供了一个能源，整个夏天的食物网，支持剪切沃茨，鲑鱼，和他们的浮游动物猎物。 为了验证这一假设，拟议的合作研究将收集和解释内锋附近的物理和生物特征的观测结果，以确定真光层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，近地表磷虾和其他浮游动物群的分布，丰度和营养生态，丰度和觅食生态学的剪切水，并通过稳定同位素富集的营养途径，从浮游植物剪切水和远离前线。 拟议的研究是重要的，因为它将是第一次检查的物理过程的内部前在开花后的初级生产，专注于这种扩展的生产的生态作用，并与海鸟的transequatorial迁移模式的演变生物物理过程，创造可预测的猎物来源。

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.