What are the effects of climate-induced ecosystem changes?
There is a need for research to understand the linkages between marine ecological communities and habitats and climate and climate change. These linkages need to be understood in light of large-scale drivers, which in Alaskan waters include changes in temperature, magnitude and timing of precipitation and river runoff, seasonal ice cover, and large-scale nutrient regimes. Predictive models are needed in each Alaskan LME to forecast how these large-scale drivers affect marine community composition, primary production, secondary “invertebrate” production, fish production, marine mammals, and ultimately the human communities and economies that are dependent on marine ecosystems.
