About EcoFOCI

EcoFOCI (Ecosystems & Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations) is a joint research program between the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (NOAA/ National Marine Fisheries/ AFSC) and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (NOAA/Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research/PMEL). Acting as an umbrella program, EcoFOCI encompasses the original FOCI (Fisheries-Oceanography Coordinated Investigations) program and the more recent NPCREP (North Pacific Climate Regimes and Ecosystem Productivity) program.

FOCI was established by NOAA in 1984 to study the factors that cause variability in the recruitment success of commercially valuable fin and shellfish in Alaskan waters. Walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) from the western Gulf of Alaska was the first fish species examined in these studies. Since the inception of the program, the scope has evolved to encompass study of the ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea with the goals of improving understanding of ecosystem dynamics and applying that understanding to the management of living marine resources.

EcoFOCI comprises physical and biological oceanographers, atmospheric scientists, fisheries biologists and other scientists from federal and academic institutions. EcoFOCI promotes cooperation among scientific disciplines. The goal of the program is to determine the influence of the physical and biological environment on marine populations and the subsequent impact on fisheries. Substantial variations exist in the physical processes that structure the Gulf of Alaska. Bering Sea, and Aleutian Islands ecosystems. Variations in temperature and salinity, to fluctuations in sea-ice extent, atmospheric forcing, tidal influences, freshwater influx, productivity and mixed-layer depth all have an impact on the ecosystem. These variations occur on many timescales: seasonal, annual, decadal and longer. The biological communities of these waters respond in varying degree to these physical forcing functions. EcoFOCI scientists integrate field, laboratory and modeling studies to determine how varying biological and physical factors influence these large marine ecosystems.

Our Organizational Diagram

	FOCI Project Office NOAA/PMEL and NOAA/AFSC
7600 Sand Point Way NE Seattle, Washington 98115 Comments and information
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