The Pacific Marine Arctic Regional Synthesis (PacMARS) is a research synthesis effort underwritten by the North Pacific Marine Research Institute to assemble by mid-year 2013 up-to-date written documentation that contributes to understanding the Pacific-influenced coastal shelf ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean. Our study area extends from Saint Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea through Bering Strait into the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and our objective is to compile the best available knowledge from local communities, peer-reviewed social and natural sciences, as well as less readily available knowledge sources.
We are actively working with other knowledge synthesis efforts, such as Synthesis of Arctic Research (SOAR) that is underwritten by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). SOAR has somewhat more expertise than our synthesis effort on higher trophic levels, but the major difference is that it is chartered to synthesis knowledge for the North American Arctic over a longer time frame. As a result the joint results of the efforts may include an overview that can be used in the near future to design appropriate research initiatives for the knowledge uncertainties (PacMARS) as well as a more nuanced view of environmental changes that take into account trends over multi-annual physical and biological cycles (SOAR)
