Unalaska, AK – Two major scientific foundations are joining forces to look at the shifting dynamics in the Bering Sea ecosystem.

New research initiatives by the National Science Foundation and the North Pacific Research Board will focus on the eastern Bering Sea shelf, north of the Aleutian Islands. The research will take a big-picture approach to the region's ecosystem, from tiny plankton to fish to the human communities that depend on them.

Scientists who study the Bering Sea say that its ecosystem is changing as ocean temperatures rise. Bill Wiseman, program officer for the NSF's Arctic Natural Sciences Program, said that a big part of the research program will be figuring out how these things fit together.

"There seems to be evidence of changes both in the marine ecosystem and also in climate-related variables, like the temperature of the water (and) the coverage of sea ice, and the variables seem to be correlated," Wiseman said. "We'd like to determine if there really is a cause and effect relationship, and if so, what that is."

The NSF hasn't formally launched its program yet, but the North Pacific Research Board issued its request for research proposals in late October. That part of the project is called the Bering Sea Integrated Ecosystem Research Program, and program manager Francis Wiese said it's more comprehensive than anything the board has attempted before in the region.

The NPRB has a mandate to look at fisheries management issues in its research, Wiese is hoping that this new round of studies will be useful to Alaskans who depend on the marine life of the Bering Sea.

"There's still a gap in terms of understanding the processes, and trying to really quantify the processes," Wiese said. "Are (species) going to move five miles north, or 500 miles north? That has big implications for subsistence harvest, for fisheries, for communities, for many things."

Wiseman said the NSF and the NPRB are coordinating their efforts in the hopes of piecing together an image of the whole Bering Sea ecosystem, rather than a series of fragmented and possibly redundant studies.

"This is the first big program that the foundation has had in the Bering Sea in the past four or five years, and we simply wanted to avoid any potential for duplication at this time," he said.

The two organizations expect to commit $35 million, which will fund three field seasons, as well as follow-up work. Field work is expected to begin in 2008.