Chapter 1 - The Bering Sea Project

Abstract

The early 2000s saw unprecedented heating in the southern Bering Sea. To better understand and predict the potentially large-scale ecological changes that could have major economic and cultural implications in the Bering Sea and elsewhere, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) joined forces to implement an extensive marine ecosystem study. The Bering Sea Project was a huge team effort sustained over seven years, linking 43 study components and over 100 scientists from over a dozen institutions. Key to this sustained effort laid in the structural set up of the project, the continued hands-on involvement by the funding agencies, and project leadership. Building a coordinated program between two organizations with distinct research and funding cultures was not a trivial task. It was accomplished through the goodwill and support of the administrative and scientific leadership in both organizations, and the relationships, vision, and commitment of the individuals involved. The partnership was centered around improving our understanding of how the highly productive marine ecosystem of the Bering Sea may respond to climate change, particularly as mediated through changes in seasonal sea ice cover. It envisioned a vertically integrated program providing for end-to-end coverage, from atmospheric forcing and physical oceanography up through humans and communities, with the attendant economic and social impacts of a changing marine ecosystem. This project was the first of its kind at this scale in this region and bringing together NPRB and NSF to spearhead this effort, with critical support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Its success has inspired a model for forging new linkages between organizations, between researchers, between researchers and communities, as well as between physical, biological, and economic models, for investigating key marine ecosystem processes.