Research group Centre for Coastal Ecosystem and Climate Change Research (CoastClim)

The Centre for Coastal Ecosystem and Climate Change Research (CoastClim) is a multidisciplinary strategic partnership and research infrastructure project between Stockholm University and the University of Helsinki. The research within CoastClim evaluates the links between coastal biodiversity, carbon cycling, and climate feedbacks.
Foto: Sasha Matic /Unsplash.

Foto: Sasha Matic /Unsplash.


Through the collaboration within CoastClim, marine ecosystem and climate change research is strenghtened between universities. The multidisciplinary research team of CoastClim brings together a cutting-edge of expertise in marine ecology, biogeochemistry, atmospheric sciences, and ecosystem modelling.

The research team brings together the Tvärminne Zoological Station and the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) at Helsingfors University, with the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research at Stockholm University.

CoastClim joins and elaborates existing infrastructures of both universities, their marine field stations Askö Laboratory (Stockholm University) and Tvärminne Zoological Station (University of Helsingfors). While the Swedish-Finnish partnership provides immense added value to the effort, it should be noted that the Swedish “Askö CoastClim” unit is also operational on its own.

The aim of CoastClim is to deliver an in-depth understanding of the combined biodiversity and climate problem in the coastal ecosystems in the Baltic Sea. By quantifying the full spectrum of habitat-specific green house gas fluxes and aerosol production in the Baltic coastal zone, our key objective is to quantify the feedbacks between healthy or degraded coastal habitats and their role in the life cycles of green house gasses and aerosols.

The climate mitigation potential is assessed through integrative measuring platforms, utilizing one of the best-known coastal ecosystems globally. We intend to build novel research infrastructure making geophysical habitat mapping and atmospheric measurements of green house gasses and aerosols possible, as the final component for a full-fledged observatory.

We lack detailed information about key habitats especially in shallow areas that are both significant C sinks but also sources of GHG. We will expand our geophysical seafloor mapping capacities developing a fleet of autonomous surface vehicles to map key Blue C areas. Air-sea exchange research laboratory facilities will be built at Askö with portable components that can be mounted on the research vessel R/V Electra, allowing unique observations on the links between marine biogeochemistry and sea spray. A new mass spectrometer will be operated to characterize the chemical composition of aerosols and their precursors, a Potential Aerosol Mass chamber will be used to investigate the oxidation and aerosol formation potential, and particle counters and spectrometers will be used to quantify aerosol size distributions. The investment goes beyond the infrastructure to provide the intellectual foundation for the new science we urgently need.




Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Mesocosm experiments can reveal how warming and animal communities affect greenhouse gas emissions

Creating controlled mini-ecosystems, called mesocosms, is one way for researchers to study factors that influence processes in the sea. This summer, a large experiment of this kind was conducted at the Askö Laboratory, to investigate how emissions of greenhouse gases from shallow coastal bays are affected by global warming and by animal communities in the water and sediment. Understanding the connection between coasts and climate is a key question for researchers in CoastClim . This summer, Sara Westerström and Moritz Nusser from the Research School Perspectives on Climate Change in Coastal Seas took a new approach to investigating how small animals in the water and in the seafloor can affect greenhouse gas emissions, both now and in a warmer future.

Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Researchers to COP28 participants: Include the role of the oceans in climate work

The ocean has a major impact on the development of the climate, and the ongoing climate summit is the time to highlight this until now undervalued resource. So writes three professors at Stockholm University in a newly published Opinion piece addressed to the participants of COP28.

Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New study: Methane emissions offset carbon uptake in Baltic macroalgae habitats

Bladderwrack in the Baltic Sea emits significant amounts of methane, which, to some extent, can offset the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by these algae. This is shown by a new study from Askö Laboratory, where the fluxes of greenhouse gases between surface waters and the atmosphere were measured continuously over several seasons.

Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

CoastClim partnership signed at the Askö Laboratory anniversary in presence of the Crown Princess

An anniversary is of course about looking back, but just as much about looking forward, stated Stockholm University President Astrid Söderberg Widding at the recent 60th anniversary of the Askö Laboratory. One important composition of the future Baltic Sea science is the foundation of the CoastClim centre, that binds together both climate and marine research and the universities of Stockholm and Helsinki.

Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Extreme variability in coastal methane emissions could have large effects on carbon budgets

Carbon uptake by coastal ecosystems is a hot topic. The so-called ‘blue carbon’ is considered an essential part of nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change and offers opportunities for carbon trading and offset schemes. But new research on methane emissions from coastal ecosystems raises caution – the variability of these emissions is much larger than previously assumed, which implies that upscaled global carbon budgets may be far from realistic.

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