A three‐dimensional biophysical nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton model was used to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamics of food resources for young walleye pollock in the western Gulf of Alaska, to further understanding of recruitment processes for pollock. We modeled nitrogen, phytoplankton, a large herbivorous grazer parameterized as Neocalanus spp. (the biomass dominant copepod in the Gulf), and the 13 stages (eg...

The waters surrounding the Pribilof Islands are an important nursery ground for juvenile walleye pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma ), an important forage fish in the pelagic food web of the productive Bering Sea shelf region. The diet of juvenile pollock was studied in two consecutive years along a transect line crossing from a well‐mixed coastal domain, through a frontal region to stratified water farther offshore. Variability...

In 1997, the Bering Sea ecosystem, a productive, high‐latitude marginal sea, demonstrated that it responds on very short time scales to atmospheric anomalies. That year, a combination of atmospheric mechanisms produced notable summer weather anomalies over the eastern Bering Sea. Calm winds, clear skies, and warm air temperatures resulted in a larger‐than‐normal transfer of heat to surface waters and the establishment of a sha...

Anomalies in the regional weather over the south‐eastern Bering Sea during spring and summer of 1997 resulted in significant differences in nutrient availability, phytoplankton species composition, and zooplankton abundance over the continental shelf as compared with measurements in the 1980s. Calm winds and the reduction of cloud cover in spring and summer produced a very shallow mixed layer in which nitrate and silicate were...