• Acronym: WG 39
• Parent Committee: SB
• Term: PICES-2016 – PICES-2022
• Extended
  at PICES-2018 until PICES-2021 (GC decisions S/4 (vii))
  at PICES-2021 until PICES-2022 (GC decisions S/10 (x))
• Disbanded: IGC-2024
• Final Product: PICES Scientific Report (will be added soon)
• PICES Co-Chair: Prof. Sei-Ichi Saitoh (PICES/Japan, <ssaitoh@salmon.fish.hokudai.ac.jp>)
  
• ICES Co-Chair: Dr. Martine van den Heuvel-Greve (ICES/Netherlands, <martine.vandenheuvel-greve@wur.nl>)
  PAME Co-Chair: Dr. Lis Lindal Jørgensen (PAME/Norway <lis.lindal.joergensen@hi.no>)

At PICES-2016, the ICES President requested that PICES join an existing ICES/PAME (Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment) Working Group on an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment for the Central Arctic Ocean. This request was approved by Governing Council (Decision 2016/S/5). Preparing an Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) for the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO) is a step needed to provide scientific advice on issues such as the prospect for future fisheries in the Arctic Ocean and sensitivity and vulnerability in relation to shipping activities. The working group also aims to improve the understanding of climate and ecosystem variability of the North Atlantic as well as in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska in the North Pacific.

WG 39 will consider approaches and methodologies for the IEA in the Central Arctic Ocean. For this purpose it will collect the relevant data and carry out analyses. Moreover, core research areas will be identified and outline of the CAO ecosystem will be developed.

1. Review and consider approaches and methodologies for conducting an IEA of the CAO ecosystem;
2. Review and report on ongoing and recent changes and events in the CAO ecosystem associated with changes such as in sea ice, oceanographic circulation, and hydrographic properties;
3. Continue to examine the effects of climate change on the CAO ecosystem by compiling and reviewing information on changes in response to the ongoing ‘Great melt’, and assess likely consequences to the CAO ecosystem of projected future changes associated with further loss of sea ice and other climate-related changes (i.e., a climate impact assessment);
4. Assess the consequences of recent and ongoing climatic and oceanographic changes on transport pathways (physical and biological) and potential effects of contaminants in the CAO ecosystem;
5. Review and report on new studies on fish as well as other biological components of the CAO ecosystem;
6. Continue to identify priority research needs and monitor how identified knowledge gaps (needed to improve IEA and management effectiveness) are being addressed and filled;
7. Prepare an Ecosystem Overview for the CAO ecosystem.