OS53B:
Unprecedented Bering Sea Ice Extent and Impacts to Marine Ecosystems and Western Alaskan Communities I


Submit an Abstract to this Session


Session ID#: 57644

Session Description:
Anomalously warm sea surface temperatures during summer of 2017 led to record late winter freeze-up and low ice extent in the Northern Bering Sea and Strait region. Arctic Amplification of climate change is driving unprecedented, sweeping changes to the Alaskan landscape and surrounding seas. Diminished sea ice coverage has serious implications for coastal communities, indigenous subsistence hunting and currently poses a threat to food security and navigation safety. An interdisciplinary approach to monitoring marine ecosystem impacts combined with physical oceanography and sea ice dynamics and consequent impacts to human systems is central to creating a system level understanding both at present and into the future. We invite presentations on emerging phenomena such as increasingly prevalent harmful algal blooms, changes in marine food web processes and populations, altered circulation and stratification dynamics and impacts of winter storms on communities. Preliminary results from recent field work and long-term model projections are welcomed.
Primary Convener:  Emily Osborne, NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Silver Spring, United States
Conveners:  Molly McCammon, Alaska Ocean Observing System, Anchorage, AK, United States and Olivia Astillero Lee, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States
Primary Liaison:  Emily Osborne, NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Silver Spring, United States
Chairs:  Emily Osborne, University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States and Molly McCammon, Alaska Ocean Observing System, Anchorage, AK, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Emily Osborne, University of South Carolina, Columbia, United States
Co-Organized with:
Ocean Sciences, and GeoHealth

Cross-Listed:
  • C - Cryosphere
  • GH - GeoHealth

Proposed Co-Organized Session with:
  • C - Cryosphere
  • GH - GeoHealth
Index Terms:

0232 Impacts of climate change: ecosystem health [GEOHEALTH]
0738 Ice [CRYOSPHERE]
4215 Climate and interannual variability [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4817 Food webs, structure, and dynamics [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

A Transitioning Ecosystem: Food for Thought in the Northern Bering Sea / Bering Strait Region (467732)
Gay Sheffield, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States and Raphaela Stimmelmayr, Department of Wildlife Management, North Slope Borough, Barrow, AK, United States
An assessment of arctic observing based on the historically low sea ice coverage of the Bering Sea in winter 2017–18 (Invited) (444761)
Matthew L Druckenmiller, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, United States, Hajo Eicken, University of Alaska Fairbanks, International Arctic Research Center, Fairbanks, AK, United States, Jennifer Ann Francis, Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, NJ, United States, Henry Huntington, Huntington Consulting, Eagle River, AK, United States and Olivia Astillero Lee, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States
The impact of anomalous low sea-extent in 2018 upon oceanographic and sea-ice conditions in the Bering-Chukchi region (454631)
Kevin R Wood1,2, Steven R Jayne3, Carol A Ladd4, Muyin Wang5 and Calvin Mordy5,6, (1)JISAO/University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, (2)University of Washington, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, Seattle, WA, United States, (3)WHOI, Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (4)NOAA/PMEL, Seattle, WA, United States, (5)University of Washington, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies, Seattle, United States, (6)NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, United States
How the Absence of Sea Ice Altered the Physical Oceanography of the Northern Bering Sea (416543)
Phyllis J Stabeno1, Carol A Ladd1, Calvin Mordy1 and Ryan M McCabe2, (1)NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, United States, (2)University of Washington, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, Seattle, WA, United States
Response of the Bering Sea Ecosystem to an Ice-Free Winter (421532)
Calvin Mordy1,2, Janet Duffy-Anderson3, Elizabeth C Siddon4, Phyllis J Stabeno5, Alex G Andrews4, Ali Dreary3, Corey Fugate4, Colleen Harpold3, David G Kimmel3, Jesse Lamb3 and Steve Porter3, (1)NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, United States, (2)University of Washington, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies, Seattle, United States, (3)NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, WA, United States, (4)NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, Juneau, AK, United States, (5)NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, United States
The Northern Bering Sea: An Ecosystem in Transition (Invited) (428732)
Jacqueline M. Grebmeier, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, United States, Lee W. Cooper, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, MD, United States and Karen E Frey, Clark University, Graduate School of Geography, Worcester, MA, United States
Mustering Records of Arctic Exploration: Alaskan Bivalve distributions in the Chukchi and Bering Seas over the last 150 years (412964)
Caitlin A Meadows, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

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