Long-Term Changes in Distribution and Frequency of Aquatic Vascular Plants and Charophytes in an Estuary in the Baltic Sea

2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (SA) ◽  
pp. 1-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrietta Pitkänen ◽  
Minttu Peuraniemi ◽  
Mats Westerbom ◽  
Mikael Kilpi ◽  
Mikael von Numers
2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 1739-1749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep Pekcan-Hekim ◽  
Anna Gårdmark ◽  
Agnes M. L. Karlson ◽  
Pirkko Kauppila ◽  
Mikaela Bergenius ◽  
...  

Abstract Climate change, eutrophication, and fishing are main pressures associated with changes in the abiotic and biotic environment in several sub-basins of the Baltic Sea. Identifying the nature of such changes is of relative importance for fisheries and environmental management. The Bothnian Bay is the northernmost sub-basin in the Baltic Sea and the responses of the foodweb to long-term changes in combined pressures have not been investigated. In this study, we explore long-term changes in the Bothnian Bay foodweb, represented by key species across all trophic levels over the past 34 years, and identify potential environmental and anthropogenic drivers. The results indicate that salinity is the most important driver to explain changes in the composition of the offshore biota in the Bothnian Bay. These changes are probably driven by indirect effects of salinity rather than bottom-up effects. A decline in the herring spawning-stock biomass was most plausibly attributed to an increased competition for food due to a parallel increase in vendace, which uses the same food resources (zooplankton and zoobenthos) and may benefit from declining salinity due to its limnic origin. A strong increase in the abundance of grey seal and ringed seal populations was seen in the late 2000s but was not related to any of the pressure variables analysed. Temperature and nutrients were not identified as important drivers of changes in the overall biota. Our study explores correlative relationships between variables and identifies potential interactions in the foodweb to generate hypotheses for further studies.


Hydrobiologia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 847 (11) ◽  
pp. 2541-2553
Author(s):  
Alessandro Orio ◽  
Ulf Bergström ◽  
Ann-Britt Florin ◽  
Ivo Šics ◽  
Michele Casini

2016 ◽  
Vol 169 ◽  
pp. 74-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Bergström ◽  
O. Heikinheimo ◽  
R. Svirgsden ◽  
E. Kruze ◽  
L. Ložys ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Zofija Sinkevičienė ◽  
Martynas Bučas ◽  
Raimonda Ilginė ◽  
Diana Vaičiūtė ◽  
Marija Kataržytė ◽  
...  

AbstractThe results of the recent (2014-2015) inventory and three historical datasets (1949-1959, 1960-1980 and 1997-2007) were analyzed in order to track the long-term changes of charophytes in the largest estuarine lagoon of the Baltic Sea. The present species composition of charophytes in the estuarine part of the Curonian Lagoon consisted of 7 species, including tolerant to salinity (


1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 373-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Grimvall ◽  
H. Borén ◽  
S. Jonsson ◽  
S. Karlsson ◽  
R. Sävenhed

The long-term fate of chlorophenols and adsorbable organic halogens (AOX) was studied in two large recipients of bleach-plant effluents: Lake Vättern in Sweden and the Baltic Sea. The study showed that there is a long-distance transport (>100 km) of chloroguaiacols from bleach-plants to remote parts of receiving waters. However, there was no evidence of several-year-long accumulation of chloro-organics in the water-phase. A simple water-exchange model for Lake Vättern showed that the cumulated bleach-plant discharges from the past 35 years would have increased the AOX concentration in the lake by more than 100 µg Cl/l, if no AOX had been removed from the water by evaporation, sedimentation or degradation. However, the observed AOX concentration in Lake Vättern averaged only about 15 µg Cl/l, which was less than the average AOX concentration (32 µg Cl/l) in the “unpolluted” tributaries of the lake. Similar investigations in the Baltic Sea showed that non-point sources, including natural halogenation processes, accounted for a substantial fraction of the AOX in the open sea. The presence of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol in precipitation and “unpolluted” surface waters showed that non-point sources may also make a considerable contribution to the background levels of compounds normally regarded as indicators of bleach-plant effluents.


Ocean Science ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Soomere ◽  
A. Räämet

Abstract. This study focuses on spatial patterns in linear trends of numerically reconstructed basic wave properties (average and extreme wave heights, wave periods) in the Baltic Sea under the assumption of no ice cover. Numerical simulations of wave conditions for 1970–2007, using the WAM wave model and adjusted geostrophic winds, revealed extensive spatial variations in long-term changes in both average and extreme wave heights in the Baltic Sea but almost no changes in the basinwide wave activity and wave periods. There has been a statistically significant decrease in the annual mean significant wave height by more than 10% between the islands of Öland and Gotland and in the southward sea area, and a substantial increase to the south-west of Bornholm, near the coast of Latvia, between the Åland Archipelago and the Swedish mainland, and between the Bothnian Sea and the Bothnian Bay. Variations in extreme wave heights (defined as the threshold for 1% of the highest waves each year) show similar patterns of changes. In several areas the trends in average and extreme wave heights are different. Such a complicated pattern of changes indicates that (i) different regions of the Baltic Sea basin have experienced widespread but essentially different changes in wind properties and (ii) many seemingly controversial trends and variations established in wave properties at different sites in the recent past may reflect the natural spatial variability in the Baltic Sea wave fields.


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