Keynote speaker Takashi Kikuchi of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology will discuss changes of oceanographic conditions in the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean and the impact to marine ecosystems. Fran Ulmer, chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission will speak about the commission’s goals and objectives for Arctic research through 2018.
University of Washington research scientist Nick Bond will speak on the recent marine heat wave in Alaska. Bond, the state climatologist for Washington, conducts research with a focus on the climate of the Pacific Northwest, and linkages between the climate and marine ecosystems of Alaska.
January 24, January 25 and January 26th of the symposium will be devoted to the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, and the Arctic respectively.
The annual symposium brings together scientists from various countries and government entities who have done studies in these areas, to showcase their marine research findings and answer questions from several hundred participants.
Complete details on the agenda are online at amss.nprb.org
The symposium is coordinated by the North Pacific Research Board, which was created by Congress in 1997 to recommend marine research activities to the US Secretary of Commerce. For nearly two decades, the NPRB has focused on research to better understand the waters surrounding Alaska as they relate to pressing fishery management issues and important ecosystem information needs.
Since 2002, the NPRB has supported three major ecosystem research programs, over 380 multi-annual projects, 56 graduate students and three-long-term monitoring projects.
To date NPRB has funded more than 120 different national and international institutions, resulting in several hundred peer-reviewed journal publications covering marine research themes.