An important area of contemporary carbon cycle research is the linkage and response to climate change. Many recent studies have investigated carbon cycle variability in the Central and North Pacific. A significant number of these studies were related to the effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on upwelling regions of the Equatorial Pacific. Recently, there have been several studies indicating significant variability over other regions of the North Pacific and potential linkages to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). Most of these studies covered a relatively short time frame, examined only a relatively small portion of the North Pacific, or considered only a limited number of parameters. What is often lacking is an overall picture of North Pacific carbon cycle that draws together all of these individual lines of investigation and looks for coherent patterns that may help us understand the regional significance of variability and the possible mechanisms controlling the observed spatial and temporal patterns. This session will provide a forum to present new insights into links between climate change and the carbon cycle in the North Pacific. It will showcase, in part, results from a synthesis and modeling workshop (co-sponsored jointly by NOAA, Global Carbon Project and PICES) planned for June 2004, and will bring together many scientists focusing on such phenomena in the North Pacific region. We encourage contributed papers and posters that present recent research into the carbon cycle of the North Pacific with particular emphasis on the following: climate induced inter-annual and decadal variability in air-sea CO2 exchange; the role of the North Pacific in taking up anthropogenic carbon; changes in phytoplankton community structure and its consequences for the carbon cycle; and recent modeling and synthesis activities that aim to understand such linkages.