October 19, 2022 — Read the full release at NOAA Fisheries:
This special issue journal is titled Understanding Ecosystem Processes in the Gulf of Alaska: Volume 3, Deep-Sea Research II. It contains 13 papers ranging on topics such as oceanography, nearshore environments, fish communities, and fisheries management applications. More than 70 authors from 15 different agencies and organizations contributed to these publications, including many NOAA scientists from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
“It’s an especially exciting time for researchers investigating the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem,” according to Mandy Lindeberg, a NOAA Fisheries scientist and guest editor for the special issue. “The Gulf has recently experienced periods of unusually cool conditions contrasted with an extreme marine heatwave. These extreme conditions are sending ripple effects through the food web and make research and monitoring in the Gulf of Alaska anything but boring.”
Findings published in this issue provide considerable new insights into the processes at work in the Gulf of Alaska. They range, from oceanography and localized processes that provide food for commercially and ecologically important species, to animal responses to stressors like a marine heatwave. Highlighted below are just a few of these findings.
Oceanography and the Pacific Marine Heatwave
Oceanographic processes in the Gulf of Alaska are driven by winds, tides, and freshwater runoff, which in turn create eddies and mix water to enhance growth of phytoplankton. These processes fuel the Gulf’s food web, including ecologically important forage fish such as herring and commercially important groundfish such as Pacific cod.
The 2014–2019 Pacific marine heatwave caused major changes across the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem. Several papers in this volume address the Pacific marine heatwave and place its impacts in a broader context.
Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries