A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• The mussel caging approach in assessing biological effects of wastewater treatment plant discharges in the Gulf of Finland (Baltic Sea)

  2015. Raisa Turja (et al.). Marine Pollution Bulletin 97 (1-2), 135-149

  Article

  Biological effects of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents were investigated in Baltic mussels (Mytilus trossulus) caged for one month 800 m and 1100 m from the WWTP discharge site and at a reference site 4 km away. Significant antioxidant, genotoxic and lysosomal responses were observed close to the point of the WWTP discharge. Passive samplers (POCIS) attached to the cages indicated markedly higher water concentrations of various pharmaceuticals at the two most impacted sites. Modeling the dispersal of a hypothetical passive tracer compound from the WWTP discharge site revealed differing frequencies and timing of the exposure periods at different caging sites. The study demonstrated for the first time the effectiveness of the mussel caging approach in combination with passive samplers and the application of passive tracer modeling to examine the true exposure patterns at point source sites such as WWTP pipe discharges in the Baltic Sea.

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• Management of coastal pollution by means of smart placement of human activities

  2011. T. Soomere (et al.). Journal of Coastal Research 57, 951-955

  Article

  We describe recent developments in the new technique that addresses the potential for a systematic increase in the time until an adverse impact (for example, an oil spill) reaches a vulnerable sea area and a corresponding decrease in the probability of the impact reaching such an area after an accident has happened. The risk of coastal pollution is estimated using statistical analysis of a large pool of numerically simulated trajectories of water particles in the surface layer. A decrease in the risk level is possible by means of minimizing the probability for a coastal hit or by maximizing the time span until the pollution reaches the coast. Environmental gain is then achieved by placing the dangerous activities into sea areas (or redirecting ship traffic accordingly), from which the transport of the adverse impact to the coast is less likely or takes the most time. As a key new development, we introduce and analyze a measure of risk that systematically accounts for the potential increase in the sailing distance associated with the proposed approach. The resulting gain from the use of the corresponding optimal fairways is estimated for the test area of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.

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• The role of the spatial resolution of a three-dimensional hydrodynamic model for marine transport risk assessment

  2011. Andrejev Oleg, Soomere Tarmo, Alexander Sokolov. Oceanologia 53 (1), 309-334

  Article

  The paper addresses the sensitivity of a novel method for quantifying the environmental risks associated with the current-driven transport of adverse impacts released from offshore sources (e.g. ship traffic) with respect to the spatial resolution of the underlying hydrodynamic model. The risk is evaluated as the probability of particles released in different sea areas hitting the coast and in terms of the time after which the hit occurs (particle age) on the basis of a statistical analysis of large sets of 10-day long Lagrangian trajectories calculated for 1987-1991 for the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea. The relevant 2D maps are calculated using the OAAS model with spatial resolutions of 2, 1 and 0.5 nautical miles (nm) and with identical initial, boundary and forcing conditions from the Rossby Centre 3D hydrodynamic model (RCO, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute). The spatially averaged values of the probability and particle age display hardly any dependence on the resolution. They both reach almost identical stationary levels (0.67-0.69 and ca 5.3 days respectively) after a few years of simulations. Also, the spatial distributions of the relevant fields are qualitatively similar for all resolutions. In contrast, the optimum locations for fairways depend substantially on the resolution, whereas the results for the 2 nm model differ considerably from those obtained using finer-resolution models. It is concluded that eddy-permitting models with a grid step exceeding half the local baroclinic Rossby radius are suitable for a quick check of whether or not any potential gain from this method is feasible, whereas higher-resolution simulations with eddy-resolving models are necessary for detailed planning. The asymptotic values of the average probability and particle age are suggested as an indicator of the potential gain from the method in question and also as a new measure of the vulnerability of the nearshore of water bodies to offshore traffic accidents.

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Show all publications by Alexander Sokolov at Stockholm University