Extreme oceanographic conditions in the northwestern Bering Sea in 2017–2018

Basyuk, Eugene O.; Zuenko, Yu. I.

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2020.104909

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The NBS was predicted to remain strongly influenced by persistent seasonal ice cover (Hermann et al 2016), albeit with interannual variability until at least 2050 (Stabeno et al 2012a). However, recent years of unprecedented low ice coverage have occurred, resulting in shifts in oceanographic conditions across the NBS , Basyuk & Zuenko 2020 that have been linked to ecosystem-wide responses (Duffy-Anderson et al 2019, Siddon et al 2020. The recent low ice event of 2018 was determined to be the lowest ice extent in the last 5500 years based on peat cellulose oxygen isotopes from St. Matthew Island (Jones et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The northern Bering Sea zooplankton community response to variability in sea ice: evidence from a series of warm and cold periods

Kimmel¹,

Eisner²,

Pinchuk³

2023

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Recent, unprecedented losses of sea ice have resulted in widespread changes in the northern Bering Sea ecosystem, and this study explores the zooplankton community response. Time-series observations were used to identify zooplankton community changes in the northern (>60°N) Bering Sea (NBS) over a 17 yr period (2002-2018). The overall objective was to determine if the changes in zooplankton populations previously described for the southeastern Bering Sea shelf (<60°N) were also observed in the NBS over alternating warm and cold periods. Particular attention was paid to more recent (2014-2018) years that showed significant losses of sea ice in the NBS (2017/2018) in comparison to a prior warm period (2003-2005) and an intervening cold period (2006-2013). A multivariate framework (redundancy analysis) was used to explore correlations with environmental conditions, and differences in mean abundance across the differing warm and cold periods were tested. The NBS zooplankton community had different responses across each warm and cold period, and the primary driver for the differences in response was sea ice. Redundancy analysis demonstrated that the zooplankton community during the second warm period experienced greater variability compared to the prior warm period. The zooplankton community had higher abundances of small copepods and meroplankton and reduced abundances of Calanus spp. and chaetognaths during the most recent warm period. This suggests that the NBS zooplankton will not be impacted by reduced sea ice when the ice coverage extends south of 60°N, but show community change once a minimum threshold in ice extent and timing of retreat is reached. Shifts in the zooplankton community may have had cascading effects on higher trophic levels that were evident during the latter warm period.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The northern Bering Sea zooplankton community response to variability in sea ice: evidence from a series of warm and cold periods

Kimmel¹,

Eisner²,

Pinchuk³

2023

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…The warm water mass advected into the Bering Sea in 2017-2018 (Basyuk & Zuenko, 2020;Stabeno & Bell, 2019), and may be represented by a peak in MHW-OAX-LOX in 2018 (Supporting Information Figure S11). Subsequently, lower sea-ice cover in the winter led to anomalous stratification and reduced vertical mixing from melting ice (Stabeno & Bell, 2019;Scannell et al, 2020), prolonging the lifetime of the CCX in the subsurface.…”

Section: Vertical Structure and Clustering Of Ccxsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ENSO-driven temperature anomalies lead to MHWs (Holbrook et al, 2019), which then induces OAX through shifts in the carbonate chemistry equilibrium (Zeebe & Wolf-Gladrow, 2001;Burger et al, 2022). (Basyuk & Zuenko, 2020). Lateral advection of a warm water mass, enhanced southerly winds, and lower sea ice cover lead to the anomalous conditions in the Bering sea.…”

Section: Drivers Of Column-compound Extreme Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Column-Compound Extremes in the Global Ocean

Wong,

Münnich,

Gruber

2023

Preprint

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Marine extreme events such as marine heatwaves, ocean acidity extremes and low oxygen extremes can pose a substantial threat to marine organisms and ecosystems. Such extremes might be particularly detrimental (i) when they occur compounded in more than one stressor, and (ii) when the extremes extend substantially across the water column, restricting the habitable space for marine organisms. Here, we use daily output from a hindcast simulation (1961-2020) from the ocean component of the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to characterise such column-compound extreme events (CCX), employing a relative threshold approach to identify the extremes and requiring them to extend vertically over at least 50m. The diagnosed CCXs are prevalent, occupying worldwide in the 1960s about 1% of the volume contained within the top 300m. Over the duration of our simulation, CCXs become more intense, last longer, and occupy more volume, driven by the trends in ocean warming and ocean acidification. For example, the triple CCX have expanded 24-fold, now last 3-times longer, and have become 6-times more intense since the early 1960s. Removing this effect with a moving baseline permits us to better understand the key characteristics of the CCXs. They last typically about 10 to 30 days and predominantly occur in the tropics and the high latitudes, regions of high potential biological vulnerability. Overall, the CCXs fall into 16 clusters, reflecting different patterns and drivers. Triple CCX are largely confined to the tropics and the North Pacific, and tend to be associated with the El Nino-Southern Oscillation.

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“…Particularly, in the winter of 2017 and 2018, the seaice coverage reached a historical minimum based on satellite observations dating back to 1978 (Cornwall, 2019). This early sea ice retreat has been largely attributed to relatively warm winds from the south, accompanied by a westward shift of the Aleutian low from its typical position Basyuk and Zuenko, 2020). This drastic change in sea ice coverage may weaken the water column stratification of the Chirikov Basin (Ueno et al, 2020), thus decreasing the cold pool in the bottom layer of the Bering shelf .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Early Sea-Ice Reduction on Zooplankton and Copepod Population Structure in the Northern Bering Sea During the Summers of 2017 and 2018

et al. 2022

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A remarkable early sea-ice reduction event was observed in the northern Bering Sea during 2018. In turn, this unusual hydrographic phenomenon affected several marine trophic levels, resulting in delayed phytoplankton blooms, phytoplankton community changes, and a northward shift of fish stocks. However, the response of the zooplankton community remains uncharacterized. Therefore, our study sought to investigate the zooplankton community shifts in the northern Bering Sea during the summers of 2017 and 2018 and evaluate the effects of early sea-ice melt events on the zooplankton community, population structure of large copepods, and copepod production. Five zooplankton communities were identified based on cluster analysis. Further, annual changes in the zooplankton community were identified in the Chirikov Basin. In 2017, the zooplankton community included abundant Pacific copepods transported by the Anadyr water. In 2018, however, the zooplankton community was dominated by small copepods and younger stages of large copepods (Calanus glacialis/marshallae and Metridia pacifica), which was likely caused by reproduction delays resulting from the early sea-ice reduction event. These environmental abnormalities increased copepod production; however, this higher zooplankton productivity did not efficiently reach the higher trophic levels. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that zooplankton community structure and production are highly sensitive to the environmental changes associated with early sea-ice reduction (e.g., warm temperatures and food availability).

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Extreme oceanographic conditions in the northwestern Bering Sea in 2017–2018

Cited by 13 publications

References 16 publications

The northern Bering Sea zooplankton community response to variability in sea ice: evidence from a series of warm and cold periods

The northern Bering Sea zooplankton community response to variability in sea ice: evidence from a series of warm and cold periods

Column-Compound Extremes in the Global Ocean

Effects of Early Sea-Ice Reduction on Zooplankton and Copepod Population Structure in the Northern Bering Sea During the Summers of 2017 and 2018

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