Phytoplankton blooms structure primary production and food‐web dynamics in the Gulf of Alaska, yet their response to recent warming and marine heatwaves (MHWs) remains poorly described. Using a parametric Gaussian framework applied to 21 years of satellite chlorophyll a (Chl a ), this study classified daily Chl a timeseries into double‐bloom, single spring‐bloom, single fall‐bloom, and no‐bloom regimes and related these to lar...

Fisheries managers increasingly rely on stock assessment models to provide sustainable management advice, which must balance complex and competing objectives. Although assessment models necessitate simplifying assumptions, there is increasing recognition to improve the integration of realistic biological and fishery dynamics. While ongoing and future development of increasingly complex stock assessments requires increased capa...

Minimising bycatch is a pervasive challenge for sustainable fisheries management, the importance of which is amplified for non‐target species or populations that are in decline. In the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) walleye pollock ( Gadus chalcogrammus ) fishery, salmon—most notably Chinook ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) and chum ( O. keta )—are encountered as bycatch. Salmon bycatch in the EBS pollock fishery has become an issue of...

Marine species and associated fisheries demonstrate complex spatial dynamics driven by biological, ecosystem and socioeconomic factors and integrating these spatial dynamics into stock assessment models can improve fishery management advice. While preliminary good practices for developing spatial stock assessment models have been proposed, comprehensive demonstrations applying these practices remain limited. Drawing on these g...

Across Alaska, there have been synchronous declines in the abundance, mean age, and size of Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha , Salmonidae), a species with immense social and ecological importance. The decline of Chinook salmon, and regulations addressing declines, have drastically impacted people who rely on Alaska's fisheries. Despite their importance, the drivers causing Chinook salmon declines are still not well un...

Sex‐specific variation in population demography and life‐history traits (e.g., growth, natural mortality) is common in many fish populations. Differences in these processes by sex can dictate population dynamics and influence how harvesters interact with the resource. Across various fisheries management systems, stock assessment models (SAMs), which mathematically represent population age and/or size structure, are widely util...

Understanding how ecosystem change influences fishery resources through trophic pathways is a key tenet of ecosystem‐based fishery management. System models (SM), which use numerical modeling to describe physical and biological processes, can advance inclusion of ecosystem and prey information in fisheries management; however, incorporating SMs in management requires evaluation against empirical data. The Bering Ecosystem Stud...

Disentangling the influences of climate change from other stressors affecting the population dynamics of aquatic species is particularly pressing for northern latitude ecosystems, where climate‐driven warming is occurring faster than the global average. Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) in the Yukon‐Kuskokwim (YK) region occupy the northern extent of their species' range and are experiencing prolonged declines in abu...

Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus spp.) spend much of their life near the ocean surface where climatic and oceanographic conditions affect their habitat and survival. Despite decades of study, critical knowledge gaps persist regarding their ecology and distributions. Consequently, it has been difficult to assess how environmental conditions influence the high‐seas distribution and habitat use of these culturally and socioeconomica...

Rapid climate change is altering Arctic ecosystems at unprecedented rates. These changes in the physical environment may open new corridors for species range expansions, with substantial implications for subsistence‐dependent communities and sensitive ecosystems. Over the past 20 years, rising incidental harvest of Pacific salmon by subsistence fishers has been monitored across a widening range spanning multiple land claim jur...

Primary producers are the foundation of marine food webs and require reliable nutrient sources to maintain their important role with ecosystems. While marine mammals and seabirds can play critical roles in marine nutrient cycling, their contributions are often overlooked. Southeast Alaska’s marine environment supports abundant marine mammal and seabird populations in addition to valuable fisheries. Nonetheless, there is still...

The ecosystems supporting Pacific salmon ( Oncorhynchus spp.) are changing rapidly as a result of climate change and habitat alteration. Understanding how—and how consistently—salmon populations respond to changes at regional and watershed scales has major implications for fisheries management and habitat conservation. Chinook salmon ( O. tshawytscha ) populations across Alaska have declined over the past decade, resulting in...

Studies of parallel evolution are seldom able to disentangle the influence of cryptic environmental variation from that of evolutionary history; whereas the unique life history of pink salmon ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ) presents an opportunity to do so. All pink salmon mature at age two and die after breeding. Hence, pink salmon bred in even years are completely reproductively isolated from those bred in odd years, even if the...

The Arctic Mediterranean (AM) is the collective name for the Arctic Ocean, the Nordic Seas, and their adjacent shelf seas. Water enters into this region through the Bering Strait (Pacific inflow) and through the passages across the Greenland–Scotland Ridge (Atlantic inflow) and is modified within the AM. The modified waters leave the AM in several flow branches which are grouped into two different categories: (1) overflow of d...

Understanding how species might respond to climate change involves disentangling the influence of co‐occurring environmental factors on population dynamics, and is especially problematic for migratory species like Pacific salmon that move between ecosystems. To date, debate surrounding the causes of recent declines in Yukon River Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha ) abundance has centered on whether factors in freshwate...