International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Fig. 3.2-3. A
Distributed Biological
Observatory concept
for the Pacific sector
of the Arctic as a
”change detection
array” to track
biological response
to ecosystem change
in the region.
(Image: Grebmeier et al., 2010)
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IPY 20 07–20 08
Bering Sea coincident with the decline in amphipod
prey biomass and the nearly coincident extension of
their feeding range to include over-wintering in the
western Beaufort Sea (Moore, 2008). This combination
of range expansions and/or changes to community
composition and the timing of life history events are
all clear indicators of an ecosystem in transition.
In order to evaluate ecosystem shifts, members of
the scientific community are developing the concept of
a ‘Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO)’ in the Pacific
Arctic around known regional “hotspot” locations
along a latitudinal gradient from the northern Bering
to the western Beaufort Seas (Grebmeier et al., in press;
Fig. 3.2-3). The DBO is envisioned as a change detection