Carefully examine ecosystem or population shifts across the North Pacific Basin in relation to interdecadal or interannual climate variability, especially examining synchrony across populations.
Rather than recommend specific retrospective studies, the working group brainstormed potential data types that might be suitable for use in retrospective studies. We list them below as either biological or physical data sets, realizing that the true power of the retrospective studies will be in interfacing the two types of data sets.
Biological Data Sets
Birds--life history parameters
Marine mammals--life history parameters
Fish--strength of year class; growth and survival; the group noted that it was important to include species other than salmonids in this aspect (e.g., halibut, sablefish, others)
Salmon scales collected and analyzed since the early 1900s--perhaps organize and fund a workshop, since this data has been collected by many countries bordering the North Pacific
Zooplankton abundance
Paleoceanographic fish scale records
Physical Data Sets
Wind Stress
SST
GAK1 Data Set from near Prince William Sound
Hydrographic data sets
COADS, mixed layer depth
Trans-Pacific Cruises
Drifter data sets
Coastal sea level
Coastal precipitation and river runoff
Sea level pressure
delta-O18
Atmospheric models to hindcast storms, etc.
