Research group Baltic Sea Fellows

The Baltic Sea Fellows are an interdisciplinary network of researchers at Stockholm University, investigating marine environmental challenges from multiple perspectives. Spanning multiple departments, they combine scientific expertise with policy insight to support sustainable ecosystem management.

Stockholm University has a leading role in the field of marine research, especially in the Baltic Sea, which is considered a strategic research area and funded as such by the Swedish government since 2010. This strategic area has enabled initiatives that support ecosystem-based management decisions in society. A strong focus lies on further strengthening marine research environments and increase interdisciplinary collaboration between the various departments at Stockholm University.

In 2018, the strategic funding was directed towards an interdisciplinary research network – the Baltic Sea Fellows – primarily consisting of tenure track positions in several of the University's marine departments. This network was coordinated and supported with marine infrastructure for field work, competences in numerical modelling, policy and communication advice by the Baltic Sea Centre. The Baltic Sea Fellows, have since demonstrated excellent scientific progress and advanced to now form a group of senior and assistant lecturers who have a growing number of other research affiliates, such as PhDstudents, postdoctoral positions and collaborating researchers within and outside the departments.

Their research range from biogeochemical conditions and circulation processes of the Baltic Sea to long term ecosystem and food web changes and how human activities on land affect the sea. This also includes research on policy instruments and legislation that regulate management on marine protected areas, fisheries and pollution.

In 2023, the Baltic Sea Fellows entered a new phase, establishing the graduate school "Perspectives on Climate Change in Coastal Seas" for new doctoral students with an interdisciplinary interest in Baltic Sea issues. Today, the fellows constitute a supervising team for 17 PhD students in various fields connected to marine, environmental and coastal issues.

The Baltic Sea Fellows form a supervising team for PhD students in marine- environmental- and climate research.

The Baltic Sea Fellows form a supervising team for PhD students in the marine- environmental- and climate research school "Perspectives on climate change in coastal seas".. Isabell Stenson

Group description

Agnes Karlson, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

I study how data (stable isotopes and elemental ratios) on individuals and populations from different trophic levels, from long-term time series can be used to validate large scale models.

Anna Christiernsson, Department of Law

My research mainly concerns the role of law in governing complex and dynamic ecosystems and achieving environmental targets and the interplay between law and ecology.

Christian Stranne, Department om Geological Sciences

My research involves numerical modeling of methane transport and utilization of wideband sonar systems for mapping of thermohaline stratification, turbulence and other features in the water column.

Fernando Jaramillo, Department of Physical Geography

I study the historical and future effects of human activities and climate change on the water cycle and water resources such as tropical and temperate wetlands, hydrological basins and reservoirs.

Francisco Nascimento, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

The overall focus of my research is to understand how benthic ecosystems respond to anthropogenic and environmental disturbances both structurally and functionally.

Inga Koszalka, Department of Meteorology

The focus of my current research is on mesoscale- and regional ocean circulation, its space-time variability as well as ocean interactions with cryosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.

Marlene Ågerstrand, Department of Environmental Sciences

My research focuses on understanding the science-policy interactions in risk assessment and management of chemicals. Aspects of interest include the use of scientific data for decision-making, the efficiency of management options, and the role of experts in decision-making.

Matthew Salter, Institutionen för miljövetenskap

The crux of my role is bringing together a network of cutting-edge expertise in marine ecology, biogeochemistry, geophysics and atmospheric physics to quantify the full spectrum of habitat-specific greenhouse gas fluxes and aerosol production in the Baltic coastal zone.

Wei-Li Hong, Department of Geological Sciences

I especially interested in how methane, as a critical species for the global climate and carbon budget, interfere the cycling of other elements as well as the biosphere.

Xiaole Sun, Baltic Sea Centre

I study how biogeochemical processes respond to climate change in marine systems and how they drive sediment-water-air fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane, especially in coastal areas.

Previous members

Camilla Lienart, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences & Tvärminne Zoological Station

I aim to understand how natural or human induced long-term changes in organic matter quality and availability affects food webs, from individuals to community level.

Elias Broman, Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences & Tvärminne Zoological Station

I use modern molecular tools and bioinformatics to investigate cross community interactions between benthic prokaryotes and meiofauna and how it affects sediment metabolic functions.