Oceanography of the Eastern Bering Sea Shelf: Important Processes, Inter-Annual Variability and Linkages to the Greater Ecosystem

Oceanographic conditions on the Bering Sea shelf impact the biogeographic landscape through many inter-annually varying mechanisms that include modulating metabolic rates, supporting primary production (which in turn impacts zooplankton recruitment) and dispersal of eggs, larvae and other small organisms to or away from optimal growth habitat.  Biological correlates to global and regional scale climate and weather processes imply strong linkages between the physical environment and the population-scale success of many commercially important species.  We provide an overview of some of the processes that shape the eastern Bering Sea physical environment upon which the various biological populations depend, including ice growth, heating, and shelf circulation.  Inter-annual variability in all of these parameters is strongly dependant upon the location and strength of the Aleutian Low atmospheric pressure system.   Recent results from multi-decade numerical ocean/ice hind-casts provide insight to the spatial structure of fluctuations that impact biological populations.  These, in turn, provide a means by which we can probe scenarios of future ecosystem, fisheries and bycatch variability.