scholarly journals Reference state, structure, regime shifts, and regulatory drivers in a coastal sea over the last century: The Central Baltic Sea case

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej T. Tomczak ◽  
Bärbel Müller‐Karulis ◽  
Thorsten Blenckner ◽  
Eva Ehrnsten ◽  
Margit Eero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Regime Shifts ◽  
Reference State ◽  
State Structure ◽  
Coastal Sea

Chemical Characterization of Dissolved Organic Compounds from Coastal Sea Surface Microlayers (Baltic Sea, Germany)

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (19) ◽  
pp. 10455-10462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela van Pinxteren ◽  
Conny Müller ◽  
Yoshiteru Iinuma ◽  
Christian Stolle ◽  
Hartmut Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Chemical Characterization ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Coastal Sea ◽  
Dissolved Organic Compounds

scholarly journals Mechanisms of variability in decadal sea-level trends in the Baltic Sea over the 20th century

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1031-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sitar Karabil ◽  
Eduardo Zorita ◽  
Birgit Hünicke
Keyword(s):  
Regression Model ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Climatic Data ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Underlying Factor ◽  
Coastal Sea ◽  
The Baltic

Abstract. Coastal sea-level trends in the Baltic Sea display decadal-scale variations around a long-term centennial trend. In this study, we analyse the spatial and temporal characteristics of the decadal trend variations and investigate the links between coastal sea-level trends and atmospheric forcing on a decadal timescale. For this analysis, we use monthly means of sea-level and climatic data sets. The sea-level data set is composed of long tide gauge records and gridded sea surface height (SSH) reconstructions. Climatic data sets are composed of sea-level pressure, air temperature, precipitation, evaporation, and climatic variability indices. The analysis indicates that atmospheric forcing is a driving factor of decadal sea-level trends. However, its effect is geographically heterogeneous. This impact is large in the northern and eastern regions of the Baltic Sea. In the southern Baltic Sea area, the impacts of atmospheric circulation on decadal sea-level trends are smaller. To identify the influence of the large-scale factors other than the effect of atmospheric circulation in the same season on Baltic Sea sea-level trends, we filter out the direct signature of atmospheric circulation for each season separately on the Baltic Sea level through a multivariate linear regression model and analyse the residuals of this regression model. These residuals hint at a common underlying factor that coherently drives the decadal sea-level trends in the whole Baltic Sea. We found that this underlying effect is partly a consequence of decadal precipitation trends in the Baltic Sea basin in the previous season. The investigation of the relation between the AMO index and sea-level trends implies that this detected underlying factor is not connected to oceanic forcing driven from the North Atlantic region.

scholarly journals Eutrophication Increases Phytoplankton Methylmercury Concentrations in a Coastal Sea—A Baltic Sea Case Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (21) ◽  
pp. 11787-11796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne. L. Soerensen ◽  
Amina T. Schartup ◽  
Erik Gustafsson ◽  
Bo G. Gustafsson ◽  
Emma Undeman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Coastal Sea

scholarly journals Enrichment of trace metals from acid sulfate soils in sediments of the Kvarken Archipelago, eastern Gulf of Bothnia, Baltic Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (23) ◽  
pp. 6097-6113
Author(s):  
Joonas J. Virtasalo ◽  
Peter Österholm ◽  
Aarno T. Kotilainen ◽  
Mats E. Åström
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Trace Metals ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Metal Transport ◽  
Acid Sulfate Soils ◽  
Acid Sulfate ◽  
Gulf Of Bothnia ◽  
Coastal Sea ◽  
Sulfate Soils ◽  
River Mouths

Abstract. Rivers draining the acid sulfate soils of western Finland are known to deliver large amounts of trace metals with detrimental environmental consequences to the recipient estuaries in the eastern Gulf of Bothnia, northern Baltic Sea. However, the distribution of these metals in the coastal sea area and the relevant metal transport mechanisms have been less studied. This study investigates the spatial and temporal distribution of metals in sediments at nine sites in the Kvarken Archipelago, which is the recipient system of Laihianjoki and Sulvanjoki rivers that are impacted by acid sulfate soils. The contents of Cd, Co, Cu, La, Mn, Ni, and Zn increased in the cores during the 1960s and 1970s as a consequence of intensive artificial drainage of the acid sulfate soil landscape. Metal deposition has remained at high levels since the 1980s. The metal enrichment in sea floor sediments is currently visible at least 25 km seaward from the river mouths. Comparison with sediment quality guidelines shows that the metal contents are very likely to cause detrimental effects on marine biota more than 12 km out from the river mouths. The dynamic sedimentary environment of the shallow archipelago makes these sediments potential future sources of metals to the ecosystem. Finally, the strong association of metals and nutrients in the same sediment grain size class of 2–6 µm suggests that the transformation of dissolved organic matter and metals to metal–organic aggregates at the river mouths is the key mechanism of seaward trace metal transport, in addition to co-precipitation with Mn oxyhydroxides identified in previous studies. The large share of terrestrial organic carbon in the total organic C in these sediments (interquartile range – 39 %–48 %) highlights the importance of riverine organic matter supply. These findings are important for the estimation of environmental risks and the management of biologically sensitive coastal sea ecosystems.

scholarly journals Enrichment of trace metals from acid sulphate soils in sediments of the Kvarken Archipelago, eastern Gulf of Bothnia, Baltic Sea

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joonas J. Virtasalo ◽  
Peter Österholm ◽  
Aarno T. Kotilainen ◽  
Mats E. Åström
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Trace Metals ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Metal Transport ◽  
Organic C ◽  
Acid Sulphate ◽  
Acid Sulphate Soils ◽  
Gulf Of Bothnia ◽  
Coastal Sea ◽  
River Mouths

Abstract. Rivers draining the acid sulphate soils of western Finland are known to deliver large amounts of trace metals with detrimental environmental consequences to the recipient estuaries in the eastern Gulf of Bothnia, northern Baltic Sea. However, the distribution of these metals in the coastal sea area, and the relevant metal transport mechanisms have been less studied. This study investigates the spatial and temporal distribution of metals in 9 sediment cores, collected from the Kvarken Archipelago, which is the recipient of Laihianjoki and Sulvanjoki Rivers that are impacted by acid sulphate soils. The contents of Cd, Co, Cu, La, Mn, Ni and Zn increase in the cores during the 1960s and 1970s as a consequence of intensive artificial drainage of the acid sulphate soil landscape. The metal deposition has remained at the high level since the 1980s. The metal enrichment in seafloor sediments is currently visible at least 25 km seaward from the river mouths. Comparison to sediment quality guidelines shows that the metal contents are very likely to cause detrimental effects on marine biota more than 12 km out from the river mouths. The dynamic sedimentary environment of the shallow archipelago makes these sediments potential future sources of metals to the ecosystem. Finally, the strong association of metals and nutrients to the same sediment grain size class of 2–6 µm indicates that the transformation of dissolved organic matter and metals to metal-organic aggregates at the river mouths is the key mechanism of seaward trace metal transport, in addition to co-precipitation with Mn-oxyhydroxides identified in previous studies. The large share of terrestrial organic carbon of the total organic C in these sediments (interquartile range = 39–48 %) highlights the importance of riverine organic matter supply. These findings are important for the estimation of environmental risks and the management of biologically-sensitive coastal sea ecosystems.

scholarly journals Evaluating trophic cascades as drivers of regime shifts in different ocean ecosystems

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1659) ◽  
pp. 20130265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Pershing ◽  
Katherine E. Mills ◽  
Nicholas R. Record ◽  
Karen Stamieszkin ◽  
Katharine V. Wurtzell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Trophic Cascade ◽  
Regime Shifts ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Scotian Shelf ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Ocean Ecosystems

In ecosystems that are strongly structured by predation, reducing top predator abundance can alter several lower trophic levels—a process known as a trophic cascade. A persistent trophic cascade also fits the definition of a regime shift. Such ‘trophic cascade regime shifts' have been reported in a few pelagic marine systems—notably the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and eastern Scotian Shelf—raising the question of how common this phenomenon is in the marine environment. We provide a general methodology for distinguishing top-down and bottom-up effects and apply this methodology to time series from these three ecosystems. We found evidence for top-down forcing in the Black Sea due primarily to gelatinous zooplankton. Changes in the Baltic Sea are primarily bottom-up, strongly structured by salinity, but top-down forcing related to changes in cod abundance also shapes the ecosystem. Changes in the eastern Scotian Shelf that were originally attributed to declines in groundfish are better explained by changes in stratification. Our review suggests that trophic cascade regime shifts are rare in open ocean ecosystems and that their likelihood increases as the residence time of water in the system increases. Our work challenges the assumption that negative correlation between consecutive trophic levels implies top-down forcing.

The Development of Climate Science of the Baltic Sea Region

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Omstedt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Regime Shifts ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Baltic Sea Region ◽  
The Baltic

Dramatic climate changes have occurred in the Baltic Sea region caused by changes in orbital movement in the earth–sun system and the melting of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet. Added to these longer-term changes, changes have occurred at all timescales, caused mainly by variations in large-scale atmospheric pressure systems due to competition between the meandering midlatitude low-pressure systems and high-pressure systems. Here we follow the development of climate science of the Baltic Sea from when observations began in the 18th century to the early 21st century. The question of why the water level is sinking around the Baltic Sea coasts could not be answered until the ideas of postglacial uplift and the thermal history of the earth were better understood in the 19th century and periodic behavior in climate related time series attracted scientific interest. Herring and sardine fishing successes and failures have led to investigations of fishery and climate change and to the realization that fisheries themselves have strongly negative effects on the marine environment, calling for international assessment efforts. Scientists later introduced the concept of regime shifts when interpreting their data, attributing these to various causes. The increasing amount of anoxic deep water in the Baltic Sea and eutrophication have prompted debate about what is natural and what is anthropogenic, and the scientific outcome of these debates now forms the basis of international management efforts to reduce nutrient leakage from land. The observed increase in atmospheric CO2 and its effects on global warming have focused the climate debate on trends and generated a series of international and regional assessments and research programs that have greatly improved our understanding of climate and environmental changes, bolstering the efforts of earth system science, in which both climate and environmental factors are analyzed together.Major achievements of past centuries have included developing and organizing regular observation and monitoring programs. The free availability of data sets has supported the development of more accurate forcing functions for Baltic Sea models and made it possible to better understand and model the Baltic Sea–North Sea system, including the development of coupled land–sea–atmosphere models. Most indirect and direct observations of the climate find great variability and stochastic behavior, so conclusions based on short time series are problematic, leading to qualifications about periodicity, trends, and regime shifts. Starting in the 1980s, systematic research into climate change has considerably improved our understanding of regional warming and multiple threats to the Baltic Sea. Several aspects of regional climate and environmental changes and how they interact are, however, unknown and merit future research.

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