First Interim Report of the ICES/PAME Working Group on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment for the Central Arctic Ocean (WGICA)

The ICES/PAME Working Group on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment for the Central Arctic Ocean (WGICA) held its inaugural meeting at ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark, from 24 to 26 May 2016. The group recognized the important contributions made by the 2015 Workshop for the Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) of the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO), which concluded that the purpose of an IEA for the central Arctic Ocean was twofold: 1) provide a holistic and integrated view on the status, trends and pressures, and 2) contribute to implementation of the ecosystem approach to management of the central Arctic Ocean. The geographical scope of an IEA should include the central Arctic Ocean Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) and the relevant adjacent slope and shelf regions. The fluxes and properties of water through the Atlantic and Pacific gateways also need to be taken into account when addressing physical and biological variability of the basins of the Arctic Ocean. Ecosystem components for the IEA should include: productivity/plankton, sea-ice biota, benthos, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals assessed in the context of the vulnerabilities, drivers, and impacts induced by natural and anthropogenic change. Two assessment teams were established to initiate work on the development of integrated assessments on a subregional basis:• Amerasian Basin/Pacific gateway team, and• Eurasian Basin/Atlantic gateway team.