Co-Convenors: Vladimir Kulik (Russia), Ian Perry (Canada) and Motomitsu Takahashi (Japan)

Invited Speaker:
Natalie Ban (James Cook University, Australia)

Marine ecosystems of the North Pacific, both coastal and offshore, are influenced by multiple tressors, such as increased temperature, change in iron supply, harmful algal blooms, invasive species, hypoxia/eutrophication, ocean acidification, and intensive fishing. These multiple stressors can (but do not always) act synergistically to change ecosystem structure, function, and dynamics in unexpected ways that can differ from responses to single stressors. Further, these stressors can be expected to vary by region and over time. This session seeks to understand the responses of various marine ecosystems to multiple stressors and to identify appropriate indicators of these effects. Contributions are invited which review and define categories of indicators to document the status and trends of ecosystem change at a variety of spatial scales (e.g., coastal, regional, basin) in response to multiple stressors. Emphasis will be placed on empirical and theoretical approaches that forge links between ecosystem change and the intensities of multiple stressors. This session will form a contribution to the work of PICES WG 28 on Development of Ecosystem Indicators to Characterize Ecosystem Responses to Multiple Stressors (http://www.pices.int/members/working_groups/wg28.aspx).