Prince William Sound (PWS) is a semi-enclosed fjord estuary on the coast of Alaska adjoining the northern Gulf of Alaska (GOA). PWS is highly productive and diverse, with primary productivity strongly coupled to nutrient dynamics driven by variability in the climate and oceanography of the GOA and North Pacific Ocean. The pelagic and nearshore primary productivity supports a complex and diverse trophic structure, including large populations of forage and large fish that support many species of marine birds and mammals. High intra-annual, inter-annual, and interdecadal variability in climatic and oceanographic processes as drives high variability in the biological populations. A risk-based conceptual ecosystem model (CEM) is presented describing the natural processes, anthropogenic drivers, and resultant stressors that affect PWS, including stressors caused by the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989. A trophodynamic model incorporating PWS valued ecosystem components is integrated into the CEM. By representing the relative strengths of driver/stressors/effects, the CEM graphically demonstrates the fundamental dynamics of the PWS ecosystem, the natural forces that control the ecological condition of the Sound, and the relative contribution of natural processes and human activities to the health of the ecosystem. The CEM illustrates the dominance of natural processes in shaping the structure and functioning of the GOA and PWS ecosystems.

威廉王子湾 (PWS) 是位于阿拉斯加海岸的半封闭峡湾河口，毗邻阿拉斯加湾 (GOA) 北部。PWS 具有高生产力和多样性，初级生产力与由 GOA 和北太平洋气候和海洋学变化驱动的养分动态密切相关。中上层和近岸初级生产力支持复杂多样的营养结构，包括支持多种海洋鸟类和哺乳动物的大量饲料和大型鱼类。气候和海洋过程中年内、年际和年代际的高变异性导致生物种群的高变异性。提出了一个基于风险的概念生态系统模型 (CEM)，描述了影响 PWS 的自然过程、人为驱动因素和由此产生的压力因素，1989 年的Exxon Valdez石油泄漏事件。一个包含 PWS 有价值的生态系统组件的营养动力学模型被整合到 CEM 中。通过代表驱动因素/压力因素/影响的相对强度，CEM 以图形方式展示了 PWS 生态系统的基本动态、控制声音生态条件的自然力量，以及自然过程和人类活动对健康的相对贡献生态系统。CEM 说明了自然过程在塑造 GOA 和 PWS 生态系统的结构和功能方面的主导地位。