The PICES report on marine ecosystems is intended to periodically review and
summarize the status and trends of the marine ecosystems in the North Pacific,
and to consider the factors that are causing or are expected to cause change in
the near future. The first North Pacific Ecosystem Status Report started in
mid-2002 and completed about 18 months later, served as a pilot project for
what might be possible.
In 2007, following recommendations by the PICES Study Group on Ecosystem Status Reporting,
Governing Council and Science Board endorsed the development of a second version of the North Pacific
Ecosystem Status Report.
The approach taken to produce the first two North Pacific Ecosystem Status Reports (NPESR), which produced a high-quality hard-copy report at 5-year intervals, was reviewed and changes recommended to streamline the production process. The new approach for NPSER-3 is to collect relevant ecosystem times series observations (ETSOs) using an online portal. The lead authors for each of 15 geographical regions in the North Pacific Ocean can readily access this information to develop the regional assessment. Ultimately the regional assessments, and an additional report on Human Dimensions, will be combined into a synthesis report for the North Pacific Ocean.
PICES requests your help to contribute to this process. The online portal to submit
ETSOs is https://pices.submittable.com/. Working Group 35 has been established to carry out this work.