welcome to the Bering Sea Project Go to the north pacific research board Go to the national science foundation

Trophic Interactions

Fish, Seabirds and Mammals

We will (1) quantify past patterns of variability among of productivity of selected fish, seabird, and marine mammal species over time; (2) test whether historical patterns and trends are consistent with existing hypotheses; (3) suggest new hypotheses based on relationships among the productivity of different ecosystem components and relationships between their productivity and observed climate variability; and (4) provide functional forms and parameter estimates (and their uncertainty) that link the productivity of different ecosystem components to climate variability.

Top Predator Hotspot Persistence

The ability to predict the location of prey is an important component of foraging behavior of predators. Predictable prey locations reduce search time and thus energetic costs of foraging. We will analyze data collected from four other projects.  Seabird and cetacean locations from at-sea visual surveys will be analyzed in relation to pelagic forage species abundance and nutritional energy data from acoustic surveys. We will quantify the existence of prey “hotspots,” whether these hotspots persist across years, and the location of apex predators relative to hotspot persistence based on apex predator frequency of association with persistent hotspots.

See also the Patch Dynamics component of BEST-BSIERP.