S1: Science
Board Symposium (Oct.
29, ¾ day)
The changing North Pacific: Previous patterns, future
projections, and ecosystem impacts
Co-Convenors:
Kuh Kim (SB), John E. Stein (SB), Michael J. Dagg (BIO), Gordon
H. Kruse (FIS), Glen Jamieson (MEQ), Jeffrey J. Napp (MONITOR),
Michael G. Foreman (POC), Igor I. Shevchenko (TCODE), Harold P.
Batchelder (CCCC), Michio J. Kishi (CCCC), Fangli Qiao (China) and
Sinjae Yoo (Korea)
Invited speakers:
Richard A. Feely (Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA, U.S.A.),
Gregory M.
Flato (Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling
and Analysis, Canada),
Steven Murawski (NOAA
Fisheries, U.S.A.),
Gregory Ruiz (The
Smithsonian Institution, U.S.A.),
Yasunori Sakurai (Graduate
School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan)
and
Chang-Ik Zhang (Pukyong National University,
Korea)
The PICES Special Publication, "Marine Ecosystems
of the North Pacific", concluded that "during the past five
years profound changes have occurred in the North Pacific climate
system, in the composition, abundance and distribution of its living
marine resources, and in the human societies that depend on the
North Pacific Ocean and its resources". This symposium will build
on studies of climate variability and other anthropogenic impacts
in the North Pacific and its marginal seas, the latest North Pacific
climate projections (whose results have been summarized in the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change),
future scenarios for direct human forcing by population growth and
fishing, and the combined impacts that these changes have already
had, and can be expected to have, on North Pacific ecosystems. The
symposium will address issues such as: 1) trends versus variability;
2) synergisms between climate and direct human forcing; 3) ecosystem
indicators and their applicability in the future; 4) impacts arising
from regional changes (e.g., less ice-cover in the Bering
Sea and Sea of Okhotsk, aquatic bioinvasions); 5) the effects of
terrestrial climate change (e.g., river discharge); 6)
how projected global change and anthropogenic impacts may alter
sustainability of the North Pacific; and 7) what the key messages
should be for policy makers regarding sustainability of the North
Pacific. Talks describing links with climate change in the Arctic
and the International Polar Year Projects are also welcome.
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