BEST: Benthic Ecosystem Response to Changing Ice Cover in the Bering Sea

提供资金支持在北方白令海开展一项以底栖生物为重点的测量方案，该方案延长并扩大了在该区域开展的一项为期20年的工作。已知北方的底栖生物群落为底栖捕食的顶端捕食者提供食物资源，包括灰鲸、须海豹、海象和潜水海鸭，所有这些都是白令海沿着以维持生计为基础的群落所利用的。以前的研究表明，气候变暖可能会改变目前的底栖生物为主的北方白令海生态系统，是一个更远洋和类似于白令海南部的食物网。主要调查人员将记录底栖动物群落组成和生物量，以此确定应监测的关键指标物种，以评估气候变化对白令海生态系统的影响。 此外，他们还将分析生态系统健康状况和趋势的沉积物指标，包括沉积物粒度、需氧量、叶绿素清单、有机碳含量和沉积物有机碳的稳定碳同位素比率，以及大气中产生的粒子反应放射性核素（7Be）和粘土相关放射性核素（137Cs）清单。 所有这些都可以作为最近的颗粒沉积，沉积物处理，以及上覆沃茨的整体肥力的生态系统指标。他们将把这些新数据与该地区的广泛记录结合起来。 这些数据将有助于解释合作者在其他资金支持下收集的关于海洋哺乳动物的数据。 它还将成为BEST和BSIERP计划内为该地区开发的模型的重要限制因素。

Funds are provided to support a benthic-focused measurements program in the northern Bering Sea that extends and expands a twenty-year effort in that region. The northern benthic biological communities are known to provide food resources for benthic-feeding apex predators that include gray whales, bearded seals, walruses, and diving sea-ducks, all of which are used by subsistence-based communities along the Bering Sea coast. Previous work indicates that climate warming may change the present benthic-dominated northern Bering Sea ecosystem to one that is more pelagic and similar to the southern Bering Sea food web. The principal investigators will document benthic infaunal community composition and biomass as a means to determine key indicator species that should be monitored to evaluate climate change impacts on the Bering Sea ecosystem. In addition, they will undertake analyses of sediment indicators of status and trends in ecosystem health, including sediment grain size, oxygen demand, chlorophyll inventories, organic carbon content and stable carbon isotope ratios of sediment organic carbon, and inventories of atmospherically-derived, particle-reactive radionuclides (7Be) and clay-associated radionuclides (137Cs). All of these can be used as ecosystem indicators of recent particle deposition, sediment processing, and the overall fertility of overlying waters. They will integrate these new data with the extensive record for the region. These data will help interpret data collected by collaborators, with other funding, concerning marine mammals. It will also serve a important constraints on the models being developed for the region, both within the BEST and BSIERP programs.