About the Bering Sea Climate Website

There is an explosion of interest in Northern Hemisphere climate, and new science programs are highlighting the importance of recent changes in the Arctic on mid-latitude climate impacts. The Bering Sea is one of the world's major fisheries, and fisheries from Alaskan waters represents half of the landed U.S. catch of fish and shellfish. Because of the changes going on in the Arctic, future evolution of the Bering Sea climate/ecosystem is more uncertain. This is a symmetric problem: climate change impacts ecosystems, and ecosystems serve as indicators for climate change.

We have developed ecological and climatic indices for the Bering Sea which serve as measures of climate and ecosystem status for the Bering Sea. Those are based on retrospective data a protocol for detection of change. Measures of Bering Sea climate/ecosystem status include weather, oceanographic and climate data, sea ice data, and fisheries and other biological data. This website presents the current Bering Sea Status, a Quick Data Summary, and the main set of time series which form the basis of our smaller set of Bering climate/ecosystem indices.

The Bering Climate page is sponsored by NOAA's Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) Program, through the North Pacific Climate Regime and Ecosystem Productivity Project (NPCREP), the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB), NOAA's Environmental Services Data and Information Management (ESDIM) Program, and NOAA's Arctic Research Office. Developed by NOAA and the University of Washington Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and the Oceans.

We wish to acknowledge and thank all the scientists who graciously contributed time series to this website. Special thanks go to Jennifer Boldt at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center for help with the fisheries recruitment and biomass time series.

Image credits:

Banner - Bering Sea photo from PMEL FOCI, http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/freeman/photo_graphics/pics/unimak2.jpg
Snow crab - from Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, http://home.tallships.ca/dPTranslations/dPKrabben.html
Jellyfish - from NOAA Ocean Explorer, http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02arctic/logs/aug31/media/chrysaora.html
Ship in the ice - from NOAA Photo Library, http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/theb0481.htm
Fur seal with pup - from National Marine Mammal Laboratory http://nmml.afsc.noaa.gov/CaliforniaCurrent/El_Nino/femaleNFS.htm
Fish (pollock) - from FOCI, http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/freeman/photos.shtml
Pacific Decadal Oscillation (warm phase) plotted on the globe - from University of Washington, http://jisao.washington.edu/pdo/
Buoy photo - from FOCI, http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/freeman/photo_graphics/pics/bering_sea/peggy.jpg

The website team includes Willa Zhu, Tracey Nakamura, Nancy Soreide (web development/coordination), Drs. Sergei Rodionov and James E. Overland (scientific oversight).