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[Krista]

Why are you guys taking samples of the Bering/ Chukchi Sea?

[Guest]

Why are you guys taking samples of the Bering/ Chukchi Sea?

The scientist with whom I work, Dr. Jackie Grebmeier, has worked in this are for a number of years. She is trying to understand what lives on the ocean botoom and what the environment there is like in order to understand the role they play in carbon cycling. Carbon is the element that is the basis of all life. Over the years, Jackie has sampled the same "hot spots" where the water is shallow and most of the food in the water gets down to the bottom sediments. She has noticed a decline in the populations of the important invertebrate species. For example, the numbers of different species of clams have shifted. Since they are food for and a bird, the spectacled eider, a decline in certain sclam specied could result in a decline fo these organisms that feed on them.