1.1 Program on Long-term Ecological 



Investigations of the Bering Sea and Other 

 Pacific Ocean Ecosystems (BERPAC 

 Program) 



HAROLD J. O'CONNOR' . YURI Y A. IZRAEL^ , ALLA V. TSYBAN*. TERRY E. WHITLEDGE", C. PETER McROY , and 

 LAWRENCE K. COACHMAN' 



'US Fish and Wildlife Service, Patu.xeiU Wildlife Research Center. Laurel. Maiylaml. USA 

 ' USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology and Natural Environmental Control. Moscow, USSR 

 ^Institute of Global Climate and Ecoloi^y. State Committee for Hydrometeorology and Academy of 

 Sciences. Moscow. USSR 



"Marine Science Institute. University of Texas. Port Aransas. Texas, USA 

 Institute of Marine Science. University of Alaska. Fairbanks. Alaska. USA 

 'School of Oceanography. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA 



Introduction 



Deterioration of ecosystems on a large scale threatens 

 many functional equilibria in the biosphere. This problem is 

 particularly urgent for the World Ocean, which is the sink for 

 many different pollutants that can produce significant ecological 

 impacts. 



The ocean is able to assimilate a certain amount of 

 anthropogenic compounds due to "self-purification" without 

 visible deterioration of the ecosystem. However, continuous 

 increase in the tlux of pollutants to the ocean creates the need 

 for study of the resistance of marine ecosystems to anthropogenic 

 impacts. Investigations of ecological consequences and 

 elucidation of causal relationships between the impact levels 

 and adverse biological effects are only poorly understood for 

 the marine environment. The study of these interactions and 

 responses is interdisciplinary in character and covers different 

 fields of biology, ecology, chemistry, and physics of the sea. 



The dynamics of marine ecosystems, including biological 

 and physical processes and biogeochcmical cycles, are closely 

 related to changes in the climate of the Earth. The predicted 

 global warming may have a pronounced effect on certain vital 

 processes in the World Ocean, especially the resistance of its 

 ecosystems to anthropogenic contamination. This is because 

 the living ocean determines, to a great degree, the normal 

 functions of the Earth's climatic system. 



Long-terni observations of physical, geochemical and 

 hydrobiological processes are necessary for the assessment of 

 ecological consequences of contamination in the ocean 

 environment and isolation of local anthropogenic effects 

 compared to the effect of climatic variability. 



The Bering Sea is located between the coasts of the Soviet 

 Far East (USSR) and Alaska (USA ) and. naturally, an interest 

 in the study of its ecosystems has been shown by Soviet and 

 American scientists (Izrael & Tsyban, 1983a, 1977, 1990; 

 Roscigno, 1990). 



In spite of comprehensive studies carried out in the Bering 

 Sea in the last few years (Izrael et al. , 1 988b; Izrael & Tsyban, 

 1989, 1990; Coachman, 1990; Roscigno. 1990), a number of 

 the oceanographic, hydrochemical. and biological parameters 

 determining its ecosystem functions are as yet poorly known, 

 when compared with, for instance, the Baltic, Mediterranean, 

 and Black Seas. For example, the joint bilateral program of 

 Bering/Chukchi investigations have been carried out for more 

 than 13 years with the production of three monographs of 

 cruise results. However, the as yet inadequate data on the 

 characteristics and processes occurring in the ecosystems of 

 the Bering Sea and North Pacific waters have led to the 

 organization and implementation of an international program: 

 Long-term Ecological Research of the Marine Ecosystems in 

 the Arctic and Pacific Oceans (BERPAC Program). 



Goals, Objectives, and Scientific Basis of the BERPAC 

 Program 



Goals 



The goal of the BERPAC Program is to examine the status 

 of marine ecosystems of the Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and 

 Chukchi Sea and to assess their role in determining global 

 climate. BERPAC will study the dynamics ofthe.se ecosystems 

 related to conditions ofglobal climate change and anthropogenic 

 contamination. 



Objectives and Scientific Basis of the BERPAC Program 



Objectives of the BERPAC Program consist of the study 

 of the biogeochcmical cycles of contaminants, related 

 oceanographic processes, and food-web interactions in the 

 North Pacific waters that flow through the Bering/Chukchi 

 Seas, including study of the behavior of organic pollutants at 

 the water/sediment interface since sediments are sources of the 

 secondary pollution of ecosystems. Important topics of study 

 are the control and the accumulation of pollutants in bottom 



