Co-Convenors: Blake Feist (U.S.A.), Hiroshi Kawai (Japan), Olga Lukyanova (Russia), Steven Rumrill (U.S.A.) and Thomas Therriault (Canada)

The North Pacific marine environment has provided a diverse and valuable series of ecosystem services to coastal communities for many thousands of years. Ocean and land-based anthropogenic activities are now widely recognized to have a strong influence on ecological processes throughout the North Pacific marine ecosystem. Anthropogenic influences such as commercial fishing, aquaculture, pollution, and urbanization are particularly strong in coastal waters where they impose a wide variety of multiple stressors that can impact fundamental ecosystem functions, critical processes, and marine biodiversity. Changes in the physical and biological environment perturb native communities, often resulting in disruption of species interactions and trophic relationships that can negatively impact productivity and diminish ecosystem resilience. In addition, large scale processes such as regime shifts, ocean oscillations, and climate variability can alter near-shore processes. For example, introduced species can negatively impact native communities, and commercial shipping and recreational activities can be a powerful vector for changes in the geographic distribution of marine and estuarine species. Similarly, changing ocean conditions have facilitated the continued pole-ward range expansion of a number of marine organisms, often with unknown impacts on the ecosystems they are moving into. Recent range expansion (e.g., Humboldt squid) and population eruptions (e.g., jellyfish) on both sides of the Pacific have had negative consequences for native flora and fauna.

Application of an ecosystem-based approach to coastal management would provide a template to better understand multiple stressors in coastal systems. Continuing to study and manage these stressors independently as single problems must be replaced by examining multiple stressors within the context of the ecosystems they are altering. Further, global climate change is expected to have clear consequences with respect to future species introductions, establishment, and range expansion. Ignoring complex interactions will only hinder management efforts. Thus, integrating non-indigenous species invasions with existing anthropogenic stressors will facilitate a holistic approach to addressing the challenges facing our coastal marine ecosystems.

This session will explore the characterization, understanding, and forecasting of the influence of multiple anthropogenic stressors in North Pacific coastal ecosystems. For example, how do non-indigenous species interact with other anthropogenic stressors? Contributed papers will provide a higher-level overview of stressors in various North Pacific ecosystems (e.g., overharvesting, urbanization, habitat alteration and loss, mariculture, HABs, pollution, non-indigenous species, etc.) and the types of impacts that have been observed, especially those linked to changes in biodiversity and productivity (e.g., extinctions, species interactions, trophic cascades).