North Pacific Research Board (NPRB) scientists and researchers involved in the Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Project (BSIERP) met 22-23 February 2014 prior to the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Ocean Science Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, to present results from the BEST-BSIERP project as well as related work from other research programs and disciplines not specifically included in the program. REEM program scientists were well represented at this meeting. Kerim Aydin presented results from the vertically integrated spatially-explicit ecosystem model FEAST and discussed future applications for evaluation of climate change and fishery effects on the Bering Sea ecosystem. Kirstin Holsman presented a poster reviewing results of temperature and size-specific patterns in foraging rates of three groundfish species (walleye pollock, Pacific cod, and arrowtooth flounder) in the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and Aleutian Islands and presented a talk during the subsequent ASLO Ocean Science Meeting that reviewed results from a climate specific multi-species model under three future climate scenarios. Stephani Zador presented a talk discussing the role of qualitative synthesis of ecosystem indicators in understanding and predicting short- and long-term climate and ecosystem shifts that can impact multiple marine species in a food web, and Ivonne Ortiz presented a talk summarizing main findings of the FEAST model.
By Kirstin Holsman
National Ecosystem Modeling Workshop
The NMFS National Ecosystem Modeling Workshop (NEMOW) took place in Seattle (18-20 March 2014). REEM program staff member Kerim Aydin served on the steering committee for the meeting, which included 50 NOAA scientists and team members; several AFSC scientists participated. The theme of the meeting was developing multi-model inference techniques for ecosystem predictions. Kerim presented a summary of ecosystem modeling activities at the AFSC.
By Kerim Aydin
Scientific and Statistical Committee Workshop
In February, the NPFMC’s Scientific and Statistical Committee held a half-day workshop on the modeling efforts for the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska Integrated Ecosystem Research Programs. Kerim Aydin coordinated the workshop and presented, with Ivonne Ortiz, the results of physical, plankton, and fish modeling as part of the Bering Sea project, focusing on the current status of predicting recruitment for Bering Sea stocks and further presented the results of individual-based fish models for the Gulf of Alaska.
