Research subject Fisheries – Interactions with the Ecosystem

The Baltic Sea ecosystem and marine life are exposed to many different impact factors at the same time. The BalticCAT research project further develops a food web model that will calculate the effects of a large number of natural and human impact factors.

This project will investigate the contribution of cyanobacterial blooms to fish production and contaminant bioaccumulation in the Baltic Sea.

Global climate change mitigation through the preservation of natural biological carbon sinks is of the highest importance to face the threats to our planet but poses ample challenges for society, governments and policy makers around the world.

identification of hotspot environments for coastal blue carbon sequestration and guidance for sustainable management of the Baltic coastal landscapes under global change (CLIM-SCAPE)

The project evaluates whether Baltic cod food intake and metabolism have varied the last 85 years, similar to what recent findings suggest. It also explores how trophic level may have changed over the last 85 years by analysing ∂15N in archived otoliths.

for Food Security, Adapting to Climate Change, Sustainable Resource Management and Inclusive Development

The cumulative effects of various human activities on coastal and marine ecosystems are a pressing problem. The seafloor is subject to physical pressures from e.g. construction, dredging, marine traffic and bottom trawling, which may co-occur with each other and with climate change and eutrophication.

The marine ecosystem around the North Pole, the Central Arctic Ocean (CAO), is in fast transition from a permanently to a seasonally ice-covered ocean as a result of global warming. The sea-ice loss will enable summer access to the CAO for non-icebreaking ships, including fishery vessels, in the near future and this project is assessing the impact.

- seafloor integrity, water quality and protected areas

Has the large scale fishery in coastal areas reduced the abundance of herring in the archipelago – a baseline study of historical data

Human societies are dependent on ecosystem services for the provision of natural resources, and especially so in poorer developing areas. In coastal East Africa, a sustainable ecosystem production of fish is essential for food security and sustaining human livelihood.

Small-sized pelagic fish have a central role in marine food webs as they control production of predatory fish and at the same time feed on zooplankton and indirectly control algal blooms.

This project will investigate possibilities and remediation methods to reverse the negative environmental development taking place in many shallow bays of the Baltic Sea. It aims to contribute to new knowledge that clarify and quantify various influencing factors and effective methods to address them.