Large Marine Ecosystems of The North Atlantic

Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Contributors.
I. North Atlantic Teleconnections.
1. N orth Atlantic climatic signals and the plankton of the European continen tal shelf (A.H. Taylor).
2. Interregional biological respons es in the North Atlantic to hydrometeorological forcing (P.C. Reid, G. B eaugrand).
II. Northwest Atlantic Large Marine Ecosy stems.
3. Changes to the large marine ecosystem of the Newfoundland-Labrador shelf (J. Rice).
4. Decadal change s in the Scotian shelf large marine ecosystem (K.C.T. Zwanenburg, et al.).
5. Dynamics of fish larvae, zooplankton, and hyd rographical characteristics in the West Greenland large marine ecosystem 1950-1984 (S.A. Pedersen, J.C. Rice).
6. The U.S. northeast shelf large marine ecosystem: zooplankton trends in fish biomass recove ry (K. Sherman, et al.).
III. Insular North Atlantic.
7. Iceland shelf large marine ecosystem: decadal assessment and resource sustainability (O.S. Astthorsson, H. Vi to sustainability?' (Science Vol. 292, 27 April 2001). The case studies demonstrate the utility of an ecosystem-based approach to the assessment and management of biomass yields and species sustainability. Movements toward ecosystem-based management have emerged from the case studies on the initiation of recoveries of several depleted groundfish stocks of the US Northeast Shelf LME; the collapse of the Newfoundland-Labrador Shelf cod; the assessment of physical and biological changes on the Scotian Shelf, West Greenland Shelf, Iceland Shelf LME, and the Faroe Plateau, the North Sea, and the Barents Sea LMEs. Uncertainties, with regard to environmental and human-generated forcing, are addressed in assessment of the states of the Iberian Coastal and Biscay-Celtic LMEs, and in broad-scale studies of the influences at the base of the food chain of climatic variability on the productivity and biodiversity of plankton communities of the North Atlantic. The volume concludes with an insightful perspective on the approaches used and the results reported by the eminent marine scientist and former President of ICES, Professor Gotthilf Hempel.