7 - Comparison of Marine Ecosystems of NORWAY and the US (MENU)

The ecosystem approach to fisheries requires a basic understanding of the important processes controlling marine ecosystem productivity. A necessary first step toward understanding any ecosystem is to determine its community structure and function and the ir variability. As part of the Norway-US bilateral agreement on cooperative research, we propose to undertake comparisons between three marine ecosystems of major economic importance: the Barents/Norwegian seas, the Bering Sea/Gulf of Alaska and the Georg es Bank/Gulf of Maine. This will be done through a workshop in the spring of 2007 to be held in Norway. This work plan will execute the following items: 1. Identify the relevant spatial and temporal resolution for each ecosystem. 2. For each of the ecos ystems, we will explore and elucidate the basic ecosystem structure and function. This will entail detailed descriptions of the physical, biological, trophodynamic and fisheries features of each ecosystem. 3. Develop key comparative indicators of ecosy stem status which will be calculated and evaluated for all ecosystems under study. 4. As an organizing/unifying framework, a standardized energy budget will be parameterized for each ecosystem. 5. Common essential teleconnections and drivers fundamental to each ecosystem will be identified and compared to those that are unique to any ecosystem. This workshop will establish the basis for additional collaborative activities and the fundamental physical and biological comparative groundwork will be laid in order to compare the likely response of these ecosystems to recent and future changes in global warming and climate variability. Subsequent workshops will be planned to investigate the effects of global warming on these ecosystems, particularly as ma nifest through the loss of sea ice, long-term changes in water temperature, changes in the large-scale atmospheric patterns, increased stratification and changes in species distributions.