Arctic marginal seas are undergoing historically unprecedented reductions in sea ice volume and extent, concomitant with increasing ocean temperatures. It is uncertain how the marine ecosystem is responding to these sea ice thinning trends and alterations in the timing of seasonal sea ice retreat and formation. The scope of these possible changes include primary production, planktonic and benthic biomass, migration patterns of upper trophic level consumers, and overall biogeochemical cycling. In order to systematically track biological responses to sea ice loss and associated environmental changes, an international consortium of scientists have developed the "Distributed Biological Observatory" (DBO), which integrates biological measurements at multiple trophic levels with physical oceanographic sampling from ships, satellites and moorings. The DBO initially focused on five biological "hotspot" regions distributed along a latitudinal gradient extending from the northern Bering Sea through the Chukchi Sea; subsequently, three DBO regions were added in the Beaufort Sea. An Atlantic-DBO, comprised of five transect lines, is now being developed in the northern Barents Sea and Fram Strait, and DBO lines have been proposed for Baffin Bay. This session will provide a forum to present recent multi-disciplinary scientific findings associated with physical forcing and ecosystem response detected through the DBO change detection array in the Pacific Arctic.
The PAG 2016 fall meeting successfully took place from October 27-28 at the Sophia International Hotel in Qingdao, China.
Hosted by the Ocean University of China, the meeting gathered a total of 50 participants from China, Korea, Japan, and the U.S.
Presentations included updates on summer cruise research plans, PACEO and DBO joint research activities, as well as progress reports on interactions with other organizations and upcoming meetings. The meeting minutes and presentation slides are available for download on the website in the 'Documents' section.
The next upcoming PAG spring meeting will be held during the Arctic Science Sumit Week (ASSW) 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic (http://www.assw2017.eu/) on April 2nd. PAG meeting registration will soon be available.
The 2016 Pacific Arctic Group Fall meeting will be held from October 27th to 28th at the Sophia International Hotel, Qingdao, China.
2016 Pacific Arctic Group (PAG) Spring Meeting was held on March 13th, 2016 during the <Arctic Science Summit Week>in Fairbanks, Alaska.