Regional Report for PICES Region: 14 - Marine Ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean 2009–2016

Justification of delineation at 60°N The authors of the Bering Sea ecoregions in the PICES North Pacific Ecosystem Status Report use 60 N latitude to delineate the boundary between the northern (PICES Region 14) and eastern (PICES Region 13) Bering Sea on the basis of available data and survey designs, existing research and analyses in these areas, and physical and biological distinctions between. [...] Unique characteristics of the northern Bering Sea The NBS is distinguished from the EBS and western Bering Sea (WBS) on the southern extent the dynamics of the Bering Sea Basin. [...] These constituent regions include (clockwise from the north): the Bering Strait, the Chirikov Basin and St Lawrence Island, the Seward Peninsula and Norton Sound, the inner northern Bering Sea shelf and Nunavat Island, the middle northern Bering Sea shelf and St Matthews Island, the outer northern Bering Sea shelf, the northern Bering sea slope, the northern Bering Sea basin (100-3500m), Cape Olyu. [...] This flow advects nutrients, organic carbon, plankton, and the hydrographic properties of the waters along the Bering slope and the 15 central Bering shelf (Walsh et al. [...] Bering Strait – The Bering Strait Alaska Coastal Current, the Bering Slope Current, and the Anadyr Current flow north from the Bering Sea through the Bering Strait, carrying heat and nutrients north from the Pacific Ocean into the Arctic.