Integrated Ecosystem Research

With its stable, long-term funding, the Board’s most enduring legacy may be its steady encouragement of multidisciplinary, ecosystem-wide research.

What’s “integrated” about this work?

Scientists join forces in a coordinated approach to understanding how a marine ecosystem works — from the benthos to the atmosphere, and everything in between. They also study the socio-economic impacts of a changing marine ecosystem on humans and communities.

The goal of an IERP is to gain understanding of an integrated ecosystem so that fisheries managers can better forecast and respond to changing environmental conditions. Accurate ecological forecasts will help support critical decisions and planning for the management of coastal and ocean ecosystems and fish and wildlife populations.

Integrated ecosystem research ...

• emphasizes multiple-factor hypotheses
• includes major ecosystem facets such as atmospheric features, top predators and humans
• considers how different ecosystem components interact
• should lead to validation and refinement of basic premises in scientific literature and in resource management documents

Major Programs

Bering Sea IERP: 2007-2012

NPRB and the National Science Foundation recently launched a joint five-year, $50 million project to further develop this understanding in the Bering Sea.

Gulf of Alaska IERP

A second ecosystem-research program focusing on the Gulf of Alaska will be launched in 2008. A Planning Team has provided a framework, aided by input gained from workshops.

Supporting research to enable effective management and sustainable use of Alaska's marine resources
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