Sinking particles and Pelagic Food Webs in the Southeastern Bering Sea: 2002, Henrichs, S.

The southeastern Bering Sea shelf is an economically and ecologically important system that is subject to substantial natural and human-induced change. Despite this, long term observations are limited and fragmentary in time and space, which severely restricts our ability to identify the effects of climatic variability on the ecosystem. The only comprehensive, long-term observations of the changes in the ocean environment have been made using biophysical moorings. Since 1995 Stabeno and collaborators have been monitoring site
M2, over the Bering Sea middle shelf near 56o N, measuring temperature, salinity, chlorophyll, current speed, and meteorological conditions. A time-series sediment trap, which collects particles sinking out of the surface waters, was deployed near that mooring from 1997-2003. A parallel time series of zooplankton samples has also been collected. The carbon and nitrogen stable isotope composition and selected lipids, including fatty acids, fatty alcohols, and sterols, have been measured in the sediment trap and zooplankton samples. The composition of sinking organic material collected by the trap has reflected changes in oceanographic conditions and the Bering Sea ecosystem during the 1997-2003 period. NPRB support provided for continued
observations through the winter of 2002-2003, helping to maintain an important and unique long-term record of change in the Bering Sea. These datasets were archived as part of the North Pacific Research Board legacy project recovery effort undertaken by Axiom Data Science and NPRB in 2025. The goal of the recovery effort was to assess the NPRB-funded data projects from 2002 to 2014 and archive final data packages that were ready for publication to increase long-term accessibility and discoverability. Data packages were archived as is given limited funding and resources.