Your comments are requested as part of a community review process for
the Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST) DRAFT Science Plan
To download a copy of the draft report see:
http://www.arcus.org/bering/science_plan.html
Please submit comments by: 12 December 2003
Recent, unprecedented changes in the marine ecosystems of the eastern
Bering Sea and the lack of information about the possible linkages
between these changes and climate forcing resulted in a planning process
during the past year to assess needs and plan for a large-scale,
integrated study of the Bering Sea.
An initial workshop supported by the National Science Foundation
recommended that the emphasis should be on the eastern Bering Sea, in
particular the eastern continental shelf and shelf-slope region, where
the United States' commercial and subsistence activities are
concentrated (http://www.arcus.org/bering).
In March 2003, a follow up planning workshop was convened in Seattle,
Washington to prepare a science plan for a Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST)
Program. The first draft of the science plan is now available for review
at http://www.arcus.org/bering .
The intent of the BEST science plan is to outline a multi-year research
effort that will provide improved understanding of the effects of
climate variability at various temporal and spatial scales on the
ecosystems of the eastern Bering Sea. The BEST Science Plan provides
background information and frames science questions that serve as
guidelines for integrated, interdisciplinary studies of the marine
ecosystems of the eastern Bering Sea. The proposed studies focus on the
mechanisms and processes that determine the biological production of the
Bering Sea ecosystems and the fate of this production as it is
transferred through the ecosystem to upper trophic level consumers,
including humans.
It is anticipated that the science plan will be followed by an
implementation planning process and that, if funding and ships are
available, the field program could begin in summer 2005 or 2006.
This Draft Science Plan will be circulated widely in the national and
international science communities for review. The draft science plan
also will be featured at a series of town meetings, the first of which
takes place at the SEARCH Open Science Meeting on 28 October 2003. For
more information see http://www.arcus.org/SEARCH/OSM/associated.html.
For more information regarding the BEST Program please contact:
Dr. George L. Hunt, Jr. (glhunt [at] uci.edu)
REVIEW INSTRUCTIONS
If you would like to comment on the BEST Science Plan, please email your
comments to ARCUS (best [at] arcus.org) by Friday, 12 December 2003. All
review comments should be clearly referenced by chapter number,
subsection number, paragraph number, sentence number within the
paragraph, or by sentence fragment. If you are suggesting major changes
to the contents of a section, send revised text to replace the existing
text.
If you have a full version of Adobe Acrobat version 5 or 6 you can
annotate your comments within the PDF document using commenting feature.
Please e-mail your comments to best [at] arcus.org either in the body of the
e-mail or as an attached Word document. If you prefer, you may write
comments directly on a hard copy of the document and fax it to
907-474-1604, as long as the recommendations are clearly legible and
comprehensible. Please make sure your comments are not so close to the
margin that they will be cut off by the fax.
The PDF of the science plan is available for download at:
http://www.arcus.org/bering