THE WESTERN ARCTIC SHELF-BASIN INTERACTIONS (SBI) PROGRAM
Jacqueline M. Grebmeier
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
Tel: 1-423-974-2592
Fax: 1-423-974-3067
jgreb@utkux.utk.edu
Interactions among Arctic continental shelves and basins are key components to influencing projected global change in Arctic marine ecosystems. Portions of the Arctic shelf/slope have high biological productivity, but despite this ecological importance, many physical processes and ecological linkages at the shelf/slope interface are poorly understood. The Western Arctic Shelf-Basin Interactions (SBI) program of the U.S. National Science Foundation's Arctic System Science Program has been developed to elucidate the critical physical and biological shelf and slope processes that influence the structure and functioning of the Arctic Ocean. The decadal SBI program will have a regional focus on the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and will combine modeling and observational approaches. There will be three phases to SBI: Phase 1 (1998-2000) will encompass historical data analysis, initial-scale field investigations, and modeling. Phase 2 (2001-2006) will be the core field investigation in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, along with continued regional modeling efforts. Phase 3 (2007-2009) will scale findings important to global change to other ecosystems of the Arctic shelves and basin, including development of a Pan-Arctic model suitable for exploring "what-if scenario" studies related to global change, including predictive capabilities of embedded regional submodels. International collaboration is crucial to the success of SBI. The interest of the Japanese oceanographic community in contributing to this effort is likely to have an additive and synergistic beneficial effect on the ultimate scientific results.
