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Hypotheses

The Bering Sea Project consists of 43 unique studies which are linked together by five principal hypotheses.

Download a detailed explanation of hypotheses

Source

Understanding Ecosystem Processes in the Bering Sea: First Year Field Highlights from the BEST-BSIERP Partnership, by Bering Sea Project investigators Mike Sigler and Rodger Harvey (2009). Read the Sigler-Harvey field summary for 2008

1. Physical forcing affects food availability.

Climate-induced changes in physical forcing will modify the availability and partitioning of food for all trophic levels through bottom-up processes.

2. Ocean conditions structure trophic relationships.

Climate and ocean conditions influencing water temperature, circulation patterns, and domain boundaries impact fish reproduction, survival and distribution, the intensity of predator-prey relationships, and the location of zoogeographic provinces through bottom-up processes.

3. Ecosystem controls are dynamic.

Later spring phytoplankton blooms resulting from early ice retreat will increase zooplankton production, thereby leading to increased abundances of piscivorous fish (walleye pollock, Pacific cod, and arrowtooth flounder) and a community controlled by top-down processes with several trophic consequences.

4. Location matters.

Climate and ocean conditions influencing circulation patterns and domain boundaries will affect the distribution, frequency, and persistence of fronts and other prey-concentrating features and, thus, the foraging success of marine birds and mammals largely through bottom-up processes.

5. Commercial and subsistence fisheries reflect climate.

Climate-ocean conditions will change and, thus, affect the abundance and distribution of commercial and subsistence fisheries.