Concept information
Preferred term
ESSAR
Definition
- Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=155 ESSAR addresses how climate variability and change affects the marine ecosystems of the polar (Subarctic and Arctic) seas and their sustainability. To provide accurate projections on the impact of climate warming on these ecosystems requires improved knowledge of its components and their linkages. Because of the complexity of the interactions, accurate predictions of what will happen to individual species requires knowledge on key life-history traits and of what will happen to the ecosystem as a whole, as species do not function separately from their ecosystem. ESSAR, therefore, encompasses retrospective and field studies on physics, plankton, benthos, fish and shellfish, marine mammals, sea birds and humans. The field studies will be carried out in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans during 2007-2008. The data gathered will be used, together with bio-physical models, to make quantifiable predictions of the effects of both climate variability and long-term climate change on arctic polar marine ecosystems. To understand the effects of climate variability and change on marine ecosystems we first must document what changes have occurred in the physical oceanography, as well as understand the driving forces behind them. ESSAR will therefore assemble historical data on the physical oceanography and collect new data to fill in critical gaps in our knowledge, such as moored current measurements in the Davis Strait-Hudson Strait-Labrador Shelf region and in the northern Barents Sea between Svalbard and Franz Josef Land. With recent reductions in sea ice and predictions of much greater reductions, ESSAR will address the effects of changes in sea ice on various parts of the ecosystem. Results from past and present studies will be assembled to document distributional shifts of several marine species from plankton to marine mammals and seabirds. Also, new field studies in the Subarctic of both the Pacific and Atlantic, and in the Arctic, will examine the relationship between thermal heating of the waters and changes in ice coverage, including various feedback mechanisms. Nutrient, chlorophyll, ice algae, chemical tracers, phytoplankton and zooplankton measurements will determine the effect of ice decline on biological processes. An important change following the reduction in ice will be an increase in light levels. Detailed studies of the role of light levels on primary and secondary production along the latitudinal gradients from 45°N to near the pole will determine how light levels and day duration modify ecosystem function. The effects of water mass transformations on plankton production will be compared and contrasted with the effects of sea ice and light to determine their relative importance. Our understanding of the sources and variability in zooplankton and their role in the food chain varies regionally. Data are relatively scarce in the Labrador Sea, therefore, under ESSAR, concentrated zooplankton studies, especially on Calanus finmarchicus, will be carried out. Field-based studies will also focus on the effects of the physical variability on the energy flow through Arctic and Subarctic marine food webs from plankton through fish to marine mammals and seabirds, e.g. in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, Lancaster Sound and Hudson Bay. From the human perspective, certain marine species are more important than others because of their commercial or subsistence values. The physical environment also influences these species, but our understanding of the mechanisms is limited. One of the most important commercial species in the Northwest Atlantic is shrimp (Pandulus borealis). As part of ESSAR, there will be studies of the role of physical oceanography and biological production cycles in recruitment, abundance and distribution of shrimp in Davis Strait, off West Greenland, on the Labrador Shelf and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At the upper ends of the food web, marine mammals and seabirds will be affected by changes in the lower ends. Studies will determine the role of changes in sea ice and warming waters on marine mammal fitness, including whales, walruses, seals and polar bears. Seabirds respond relatively quickly to changes in their prey and often can be monitored relatively easily compared to their prey in the marine environment. ESSAR, through the Circumpolar Seabird Group (CBird) and the members of Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), will monitor how changes in productivity of Arctic and Sub-Arctic seas affect circumpolar seabird populations. Seabird diet studies also will be carried out and compared to similar studies conducted in the 1970s and 1980s as a means of detecting if and how the marine ecosystem has changed. As well, detailed studies in the smaller region of Svalbard will be carried out to investigate the changes in seabird community structure as a function of temperature and zooplankton. The effects of these changes to the bird community on the terrestrial ecosystem through the guano deposited back on land will also be part of this study. Finally, comparisons between the various geographic regions to provide additional insights will be an important component of ESSAR. (en)
Broader concept
- D - F (en)
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/361085a8-6d96-4f38-8621-d9d63278acf2
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