APPLICATIONS OF BIOPHYSICAL MODELING TO PACIFIC HIGH-LATITUDE ECOSYSTEMS

Abstract

The high-latitude Pacific is home to highly productive ecosystems, including vast populations of commercially and subsistence harvested fish. These regions can be challenging to sample directly. Over several decades at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, we have applied numerical models to infer past, present, and future states of these regional oceans and their biota. These estimates are provided to fisheries scientists to help identify the local biophysical dynamics that underlie marine resource fluctuations and to managers to help develop effective management strategies in the face of short-and long-term environmental changes.