The so-called '5 % rule' in the multi-annual management plan for the Baltic Sea ensures that fishing pressure is reduced if the biomass of the fish stock is too low. The European Commission now wants to remove this safeguard from the management plan.
In October, the fisheries ministers in the Council decided to break a rule in European legislation. In December, the Commission proposed to delete the rule. The European Parliament and the Council had made the rules in the first place. Will the Parliament go along with the change?
The Baltic herring stock in the Gulf of Bothnia has fallen to critical levels. It is said that the herring have become smaller and is not growing as it should. But above all, it is the number of herring that has decreased – by more than 50 percent over the past decade. The largest decrease is among older individuals.
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.
The state of the Baltic Sea is still not satisfactory and environmental toxins is a growing problem. This is one of the conclusions in the new HELCOM assessment HOLAS III. A report based on the assessment was recently launched at a webinar moderated by Gun Rudquist, Head of Policy at Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre.
Associate Professor Anneli Kruve has been awarded funding from the European Research Council (ERC) for her pioneering project, "Machine Learning and Mass Spectrometry for Structural Elucidation of Novel Toxic Chemicals" - or simply 'LearningStructurE.'
Thirteen researchers from the Department of Environmental Science have achieved significant success in the recent funding rounds organized by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas), securing close to 49.1 million SEK (€4.3 million) for 15 projects.
Both the European Parliament and the Council have now had their say on the Commission’s proposal for a new Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive. Researcher Bärbel Muller-Karulis and policy analyst Ellen Bruno have been following the process and analysed the outcome so far.
Yvette Gramlich recently defended her PhD thesis at the Department of Environmental Science, unearthing significant findings about the chemical composition of aerosol particles and clouds in the Arctic.
His research interests are enterprise architecture and threat modelling, and he was recently promoted to associate professor. Meet Simon Hacks, whose next project involves optimising maritime transports.
As governments and private entities prepare to send humans to Mars, the mission brings significant environmental challenges. While the logistics of sustaining life on the Red Planet have been studied extensively, there's a notable gap regarding the impact of chemicals and materials used during human exploration.
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions not only lead to global warming but also cause ocean acidification. According to a new study, pH in parts of the Baltic Sea could decrease by 0.1 units by 2100 if carbon dioxide emissions continue at current levels. With increasing emissions, the reduction could be as large as 0.4 pH units, which could have a major impact on marine life.
For Miranda Nilsson, finding employment after her studies was a breeze. Her internship during the final year of her master's program in environmental science led to a permanent position as an environmental consultant once her thesis was completed.
Within a new graduate school in ocean, climate and environmental issues, 12 doctoral students will be admitted at several of Stockholm University's departments.
The man-made, and in many cases hazardous, chemicals called PFAS were previously believed to finally be transported to and diluted in the oceans. But at the last Baltic Breakfast, scientists at Stockholm University presented new research showing that these chemicals are enriched at the sea surface and return to land through sea spray aerosols, creating an almost never-ending transportation cycle.
How does the smell of the sea impact the world’s climate? This question lies at the heart of the Cyano-VOC research project. Within this endeavour, aerosol chemists collaborate with microbiologists to investigate the volatile organic compounds emitted by cyanobacteria and other plankton residing along the coastlines of the Baltic Sea.
During a research expedition led by Linnaeus University and Stockholm University to the deepest parts of the Baltic Sea in the Landsort Deep researchers recently discovered an area with extensive emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from the bottom sediments.
The EU Commission's proposal to stop targeted herring fishing in the Baltic Sea is based on a scientifically based risk assessment. The historic fishing stops on North Sea herring and Norwegian spring spawning herring show that drastic measures can lead to both ecological and economic success.
Professor Johan Nilsson at the Department of Meteorology (MISU) was one of the six new members elected into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on September 13, 2023.
Rachel Foster is professor of microbial oceanography at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences. She is one of Stockholm University’s new professors who will be installed at a ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall on September 29.
In a nine-page resolution with 65 bullet points, parliamentarians from all democratic countries around the Baltic Sea, set target measures for a safer, stronger and greener Baltic Sea region.
Professors and colleagues Jacob Carstensen from Denmark and Daniel Conley from Lund University have together been awarded this year's Björn Carlson Östersjöpris. Their research collaboration has developed and broadened the understanding of how the Baltic Sea has been affected by eutrophication and other human activities, and has also been decisive for the measures implemented to improve the situation.
The European Commission proposes to stop all targeted fishing for herring in the central Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia next year. "The proposal to stop herring fisheries in almost the entire Baltic Sea is both historic and tragic – but unfortunately also necessary”, says Baltic Sea Centre's fisheries researcher Henrik Svedäng.
This summer, the fisheries debate in Sweden has been hot again. The background is the perilous situation of the Baltic herring. There are fears that it may be following in the tragic footsteps of the Baltic cod.
The alarms about herring shortages along Sweden's east coast continue to come. In the absence of systematic environmental monitoring of herring in coastal areas, scientists do not know if and, if so, why herring is scarce. But a new study on the situation in the southern Stockholm Archipelago confirms the observations of coastal residents.
A new study shows for the first time that a wide-spread and abundant eukaryotic microorganism in the World’s oceans, called Meringosphaera, steals and temporarily retains plastids (photosynthetic organelles) from another microorganism–an alga–in a process known as kleptoplastidy.
A subpolar species associated with Atlantic water expanded far into the Arctic Ocean during the Last Interglacial, analysis of microfossil content of sediment cores reveals. This implies that summers in the Arctic were ice free during this period. The findings are published in Nature Geoscience.
A large expedition has arrived at Askö. The "Traversing European Coastlines Expedition" travels along Europe's coasts, stopping at selected sites to sample air, land and sea water.
The final chapter of the ARTofMELT expedition is the demobilization, as the researchers make their way back to the icebreaker Oden to gather their instruments and transport them to their respective home institutions. It has been three weeks since they set foot on land after spending nearly six weeks exploring the Arctic Ocean. We had the opportunity to speak with Chief Scientist Prof Michael Tjernström and Co-Chief Scientist Paul Zieger to hear about their experiences during the cruise and their plans for the near future.
The requirements on wastewater treatment proposed in new EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive draft is unlikely to have a decisive effect on the nutrient inputs to the Baltic Sea. This is concluded in a new fact sheet, describing the requirements in the proposed directive in relation to the current situation regarding wastewater treatment in the Baltic Sea catchment.
Autonomous and accessible underwater robots can be groundbreaking in marine monitoring and research. In June, the Askö Laboratory hosted a test week for a new generation of underwater robots from the innovation centre SMaRC.
After two weeks on the same ice floe, we have drifted farther south than we would actually want, but as the onset of the surface melt was creeping closer and the end of the expedition the same, we did not have the time to go north and establish a new ice camp. So, instead we waited and yesterday it came!
Today, 8th June, we celebrate our oceans, our planet’s “lungs”. While all oceans are very susceptible to climate change, among of the most affected ones is the Arctic Ocean.
In April, the European Commission presented a proposal for an updated regulation on detergents and surfactants. It was hoped that it would also cover phosphorous compounds in hand dishwashing detergents and industrial cleaners which is lacking today. But unfortunately, this was not included in the proposal.
Citizens and academia want knowledge to reach society to a larger extent, but time, resources and academic rewarding systems get in the way. How to promote collaboration between scientists and decision-makers was a hot conference topic.
Zero catch on both of the cod stocks and on the western Baltic herring, but for the central and Bothnian herring, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advises that trawling should be allowed to continue next year. "The recommended quotas in this crisis situation risk destroying the Baltic Sea ecosystem even more", comments scientist Henrik Svedäng.
After having traversed north from the marginal ice zone (see last report) we again got blocked around N80.5º E5º by heavy sea ice; this seems to be the farthest north we’ll get this year. We found an ice floe and have settled in and are slowly drifting southwest.
The Amaryllis-Amagas expedition overarching goal is to investigate the role of the Amazon region in the Earth's climate system, and to reconstruct the climate history of the Amazon basin and northeastern Brazil, with R/V Marion Dufresne.
Major herring fisheries in the Baltic should be closed next year. That is the content of the scientific advice. But you won’t find that message in the headline advice that most readers focus on. It is buried deep in the text. This may be a result of leaving it to biologists to interpret a political decision, writes Charles Berkow in an analysis of the latest ICES advice on Baltic Sea fisheries.
A textbook is one thing – reality another. In the master's course ‘Environmental field studies’ students learn how to assess the marine environment in practice, using both simple and advanced methods.
We have now passed the expedition midpoint, and the first half brought a mix of experiences. The ice
has been much harder and more difficult than expected.
The Baltic Sea is affected by eutrophication and climate change and both the spring phytoplankton bloom and the summer cyanobacteria bloom start earlier today than in the 1980s. Diatoms have decreased while nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria have increased. How does all this affect food chains in the Baltic Sea?
Greetings from N 80°! The icebreaker Oden has the last week been moored onto an ice floe, to enable easy access to the sea ice and for running long-term measurements.
Researchers from Stockholm University have developed porous crystals made from pomegranate extract to capture and degrade pharmaceutical molecules found in local municipal wastewater. The research is published in the scientific journal Nature Water.
Researchers have used a 30-year time series to analyze how surface salinity in the Southern Ocean has changed. By studying changes in ocean surfaces properties the researchers were able to trace back to the processes behind salinity changes.
We have now been at the same ice floe around N80º W1.5º since late on Monday 15 May. This is farther
south and west than we would have liked to be, but the ice has been very tough to brake through even with Oden, forcing us more west than north from the last report when we had just reached the ice.
Alexander Stockhaus has a master's degree in marine biology from Stockholm University and now works as an environmental consultant specialising in pollution in aquatic environments at the engineering consultancy Niras. He found the field studies to be one of the most fun and important parts of his education.
Shipping causes a number of pressures on the marine environment, including the discharge of tank cleaning residues into the water. Action is needed to reduce this problem, stated the Baltic Breakfast speakers who presented a policy brief on the subject.
When there is a will, there is a way, as the saying goes, was what researchers from Stockholm University who participate in the Arctic expedition ARTofMELT 2023 recently came to realize right at the start of the expedition on Monday May 8th.
Although scientific knowledge is more accessible than ever, bridging the gap between the research community and decision makers is still a challenge. The international conference "Open Science – From Policy to Practice", will discuss how to increase interaction between researchers and policy makers
The ARTofMELT 2023 expedition to the high Arctic onboard the icebreaker Oden is underway. Follow the blogs by MISU scientist Sonja Murto and by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat!
Since the EU's fisheries policy was reformed in the 2010s, three of the seven fish stocks in the Baltic Sea have collapsed, and there are worrying signs for two more. A team from Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre recently attended a hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels to explain why politicians should be more restrictive on fishing quotas.
Researchers have detected the environmental pollutant PCB in sediment samples taken at a depth of 8,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean. While organic carbon is degraded, persistent PCB accumulates in the deep sea.
A recently published doctoral thesis shows Monoporeia affinis, a small, benthic amphipod and key marine species in the Baltic Sea, benefit from eating cyanobacteria. This is good news as cyanobacteria will both increase and spread northwards with the ongoing climate change. But the thesis also showed that amphipods living in the Bothnian Sea seem to be particularly sensitive to environmental toxins.
The seabed and the bedrock could play an important role for the green transition; for mining of minerals and storing of carbon dioxide. But the environmental consequences of such activities are not fully understood, showed the presentations at the last Baltic Breakfast.
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences
The world’s oceans play a central role in the global climate. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Rachel Foster, Stockholm University, is researching on marine plankton communities that impact nitrogen and carbon cycles. Plankton are of extreme importance for earth’s climate. They produce half of all oxygen, lock up enormous amounts of carbon and reduce carbon dioxide. But exactly how? And how long can they continue, now as the world heats up?
The world’s oceans play a central role in the global climate. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Rachel Foster, Stockholm University, is researching on marine plankton communities that impact nitrogen and carbon cycles. Plankton are of extreme importance for earth’s climate. They produce half of all oxygen, lock up enormous amounts of carbon and reduce carbon dioxide. But exactly how? And how long can they continue, now as the world heats up?
Bacteria may play an important role in the development of eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, according to a new study on organically bound phosphorus in the sediments. Thriving bacterial communities in the seabed bind phosphorus that would otherwise leak back into the water, and the presence of the bacteria in turn depend on bottom-dwelling animals mixing the sediments.
Researchers at Stockholm University welcome the proposal from Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Norway to ban a majority of PFAS-substances from products being used and sold within the European Union.
Researchers at Stockholm University strongly support the EU Commission's ambition to strengthen the directive, they also stress the importance of including PFAS in the list of indicator substances.
A van full of sampling equipment leaves Stockholm University at half past five in the morning. Twelve hours later it returns, carrying hundreds of bottles, jars and test tubes filled with water from different locations and depths in the Baltic Sea. Follow along on a day of environmental monitoring at sea!
Methane hydrate clogs pipelines, is difficult to extract profitably, and exists in quantities sufficient to screw up Earth’s climate. Brett Thornton and Christian Stranne, from the Department of Geological Sciences and Bolin Centre for Climate Research at Stockholm University, consider this confounding cage compound.
The Formas Scientific Council has awarded SEK 14.5 million to Inga Monika Koszalka, to lead a multidisciplinary project on forecasts of algae blooms, and their impact on water resources on Gotland.
Professor Michael Tjernström and Associate professor Thorsten Mauritsen have each been awarded research grants from the Swedish Research Council for Meteorology and Atmospheric research.
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.
Temporarily overshooting the climate targets of 1.5-2 degrees Celsius could increase the tipping risk of several Earth system elements by more than 70 per cent. The tipping risk increases even if in the longer term the global temperature stabilizes within the Paris range. This is the result of a new risk analysis by researchers at Stockholm university published in Nature Climate Change.
Hurray, we have a new global framework for biodiversity and if implemented, it can make a real difference for the global environment and the Baltic Sea! Although the agreement is not legally binding, over 190 countries have signed it and have agreed to monitor and evaluate progress. More money and the possibility to measure implementation and compare countries with each other have been pointed out as the success generator for this framework as compared to the old and failed 20 Aichi targets set in 2010.
To slow and reverse the fastest loss of Earth’s living things since the dinosaurs, almost 200 countries have signed an agreement in Montreal, Canada, promising to live in harmony with nature by 2050. The Kunming-Montreal agreement is not legally binding but it will require signatories to report their progress towards meeting targets such as the protection of 30% of Earth’s surface by 2030 and the restoration of degraded habitats.
Few dishes on the table for a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner are as soaked in cultural meaning as the herring, and in the southern parts of the country also the eel. At the same time, few things are as clear examples of state-supported businesses that, like the magician in Lennart Hellsing's nursery rhyme, devour themselves like the fisheries for these species, write experts Henrik Svedäng and Charles Berkow at Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre.
Sweden opposes the European Commission's proposal for further restrictions on fishing for the endangered eel, arguing that Swedish eel fishing is a cultural heritage. "The endangered eel is being reduced to a prop in a sentimental tableau about a soon-to-be-defunct eel fishery," says fish researcher Henrik Svedäng at Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre.
Well implemented marine protected areas, as well as goals and targets for preservation of genetic diversity. That's what the scientists Susa Niirinen and Linda Laikre, who participated in the most recent Baltic Breakfast, hope will come out of the ongoing biodiversity conference in Montreal.
The Baltic Sea Centre comments on the EU Commission Call for Evidence for the initiative for the energy transition of the EU’s fisheries and aquaculture sector: A major hurdle for an energy transition for fisheries is the fuel subsidy, in the form of exemption from tax or other full carbon pricing. Another hurdle is the depleted fish stocks. Robust fish stocks make for more efficient fuel use and aid the energy transition.
The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework needs to consider additional groups of chemicals, according to a large international group of researchers. For the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15, they have developed a perspective article and a policy brief with concrete proposals for better inclusion of hazardous chemicals in the forthcoming targets.
The Baltic Sea Fellows initiative, a network of young Baltic Sea researchers from several disciplines, was launched to strengthen the environmental Baltic Sea research at Stockholm University. The results of this year's awarded research grants from the Swedish Research Council and Formas show that it is going well. The group of researchers has raised over 25 million Swedish crowns this year.
The Department of Environmental Science at Stockholm University has marked their 30th anniversary by paying tribute to the marine biologist Rachel Carson. Watch the seminar with invited keynote speakers, now on the department's webpage.
Rachel Foster has been promoted to professor at Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP). We therefore have three questions for Rachel about becoming a professor.
The newly built drifter balances at the end of the four-metre-long boat hook. In a few seconds it will be launched and tested for the first time. At best, it will provide measurement data and can soon be picked up again. At worst, it disappears, forever.
Scientists had always been puzzled why the Great Barrier Reef formed long after Australia had conditions suitable for reef growth. It turns out the answer might be K’gari, or Fraser Island, shows new research by Daniel Ellerton, Postdoctoral at IGV and James Shulmeister, Adjunct Professor (University of Queensland and University of Canterbury). They discussed the new research in "The Conversation".
Aluminium treatment can be an efficient way to remove excess phosphorus from lakes and coastal waters. But if the external loading of phosphorus isn’t reduced, the effects of the treatment won’t last long, and monitoring and modelling are keys to optimising the results, concluded the researchers participating in last Baltic Breakfast.
New research presented at COP27 shows that water is much more important in mitigating climate change than previously believed. Better management of water is critical to tackling today’s food and energy crises, both of which are exacerbated by climate change.
The Baltic Sea Fund’s award is open for nominations, to honor and reward people or organizations that contribute to improving the state of the Baltic Sea. The deadline to submit your proposals is 24 february 2023.
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences
Barnabas Alphonce Tarimo defended his thesis titled "Patterns of fish larvae and zooplankton distribution in mangrove-seagrass seascapes of East Africa" the 4th of November. Discover more about his findings here.
The European eel has been critically endangered for decades. The 3-month closure period applied in the EU over the past few years has been deemed insufficient. European Commission has now proposed a doubling of the annual eel fishery closure from three to six months in 2023.
The Baltic Sea suffers from serious oxygen deficiency. Even large inflows of oxygen-rich seawater have in recent decades only provided short-term relief from oxygen deficiency in the deep water. In the latest issue of Ambio, a new method for quantifying the total oxygen debt from Öresund to Åland is presented. By using existing data dating back to the 1960s, the researchers show that we have gone from a supply of about 10 million tons of oxygen in the deep water to a net oxygen supply close to zero, with an oxygen debt of up to 4 million tons caused by accumulated hydrogen sulfide and ammonium. In the last 20 years, the oxygen debt has also spread to near-halocline waters west of Gotland.
The Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre welcomes that the European Commission (EC) published a Staff Working Document last Wednesday, to promote policy debates and development in Member States for building capacity for a better use of scientific knowledge in policymaking.
Researchers at Stockholm University Department of Environmental Science and Baltic Sea Centre welcome the proposal for an updated Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive from the European Commission. We especially welcome the fact that the updated Directive addresses treatment of micropollutants and emphasises the role of waste water treatment to reach the goals of the Water Framework Directive and its daughter legislations.
Marine archaeologists from Vrak - Museum of Wreck have found the wreck of the naval vessel Äpplet, Vasa's sister ship. The ship was first launched in 1629 and was built by the same master shipbuilder who completed the Vasa. The discovery was made within the research programme "The Forgotten Fleet", which is led by Stockholm University.
This year both prizes of the anual Dyrssen Award for to the two best Master's theses in the marine field goes to students at the Department of Geological Sciences at Stockholm University. The first prize goes to a study conducted at the Askö Laboratory. Congratulations to both winners, Thea Bisander and Emelie Ståhl!
Marine protected areas (MPAs) can significantly contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, according to a major new analysis published in the journal One Earth. They can enhance carbon sequestration, coastal protection, biodiversity, the reproductive capacity of marine organisms, as well as fishers’ catch and income.
Imagine being able to do your Master's work by the Baltic Sea during the summer. India Findji, who studies marine biology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, managed to fulfill that dream this summer. She did her work at the Stockholm University field station Askö Laboratory, together with Jonna Källås, another Master's student from Sweden.
The EU Commission should take a step towards implementation of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries by requesting more information from ICES than an estimation of the maximum sustainable yield, writes Baltic Sea Centre Policy Analyst Charles Berkow in a reply to the Commission’s call for evidence on the functioning of the Common Fisheries Policy.
The leakage of methane gas from the Nord Stream pipelines has a large local effect on ocean chemistry, but the global climate impact is likely to be small. This according to geochemist Volker Brüchert at Stockholm University.
Researchers in the ACAS project have developed an atmospheric observatory onboard the icebreaker Oden, for studying changes in clouds and interactions between the surface and the atmosphere.
Several crucial tipping points in the Earth's climate system may be passed if the global average temperature rise goes above 1.5°C. A new study published in the journal Science shows that the goal to limit warming to below 2°C is not enough to avoid dangerous changes in climate.
In an appeal to the EU, over 200 scientists from all over the world address the fail to give marine protected areas real protection. The EU must immediately prohibit bottom trawling and other industrial fisheries within the protected areas, the scientists write.
When students of the Stockholm University course in Marine Geophysical Mapping Methods collect sediment cores from the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the cores are immediately used in research. No sample material is wasted. The ability to map the seabed is a much sought-after skill in today's job market.
A progress report for the strategic research area funding to marine research at Stockholm University is now published. The report concludes that the research group Baltic Sea Fellows, which is financed by the strategic funding, has published 200+ publications and managed to double the funding with external grants.
The fishery has been closed for three years, but the eastern Baltic cod stock has not recovered. A new study, presented at a recent Baltic Breakfast, shows that the most recent sharp decline in the stock can’t be explained by oxygen deficiency, and the causes of the poor condition of the cod remain unclear.
A research team at IGV led by Helen Coxall is investigating the response of marine plankton to climate change in the Arctic Ocean. The team has sampled planktonic foraminifera from the ocean and seafloor sediments during the SAS cruise in 2021 with Icebreaker /Oden/. They will use these samples to investigate how different species have responded to warm periods in the past and how they are adapting to modern global warming. This article contains more information about the project and about the progress the researchers have made so far.
A key cause of the disastrous development of fishing stocks in the Baltic Sea is an over-emphasis on trying to achieve a narrowly defined Maximum Sustainable Yield for single stocks. In reply to a consultation from the EU Commission, the Baltic Sea Centre policy analyst Charles Berkow argues that the Commission should base its decisions on more comprehensive information.
Stockholm University Center for Circular and Sustainable Systems
During the SUCCeSS workshop on June 14th, the first three funded post doc projects were announced. We are now happy to share this piece of new with the world. The following projects will be funded:
Stockholm University's research vessel Electra sets off today across the Baltic Sea for a major multidisciplinary expedition off the Finnish coast. Through extensive sampling of sediment, water and air, researchers at the new CoastClim centre will map how much methane from the seabed is reaching the atmosphere and affecting the climate.
Past migration and Pleistocene ice ages still impact size and structure of modern eelgrass communities, according to a new study published in PNAS. This could have implications for how well eelgrasses adapt to threats like climate change.
Warmer oceans can lead to large amounts of methane being released from the seabeds, which may amplify climate warming. A new study develops a method to understand the role of microorganisms in increasing emissions of methane from seabeds.
Professor Lena Kautsky from Stockholm University is one of the authors behind the new report, which concludes that consideration needs to be taken to sensitive benthic areas, sound sensitive animals, as well as seabirds when wind farms are established. It also concludes that the turbine foundations can act as artificial reefs.
The first Swedish marine laboratory in the Baltic Sea has celebrated its 60th anniversary, with an award ceremony, speeches and an outdoor exhibition of the important research that is conducted at the laboratory. During the anniversary, the two university presidents of Stockholm University and the University of Helsinki, Astrid Söderbergh Widding and Sari Lindblom, signed an agreement of strategic partnership.
Gia Destouni, professor of hydrology and water resources at Stockholm University, is one of the researchers discussing the impact of science communication, in the latest episode of the Stockholm University library podcast Bakom bokhyllan (Behind the Bookshelf).
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.
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommends continued high catch quotas for the herring fishery in the Gulf of Bothnia, and increased catches for both Central Baltic herring and the hard-pressed western Baltic cod next year. Risky, careless and not in line with the actual status of the stocks, says Baltic Sea Centre’s fishery researcher Henrik Svedäng.
Increased nutrient efficiency in agriculture and decreasing atmospheric deposition have had large and sustained effects on the Danish river loads of nitrogen. But to reach the goal of the Water Framework Directive, further measures are needed, such as taking areas out of agricultural production, means researcher Gitte Blicher-Mathisen, Aarhus University. Benoît Dessirier, researcher at Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre urges to reconsider today's focus on animal production to build a more resilient system and safeguard the water quality.
The first ever Björn Carlsson Baltic Sea award, "Björn Carlssons Östersjöpris", will be awarded to Professor Maren Voss from Germany for her groundbreaking research on the role of nitrogen in the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea. On Friday, June 3, professor Voss will receive 3 million SEK in a ceremony at at the Baltic Sea Science Center at Skansen.
There are a large number of pieces of legislation intended to protect the environment, yet the politically adopted environmental objectives are not being met. Some of the explanations for this are lack of coordination and holistic perspective, laws not being correctly applied or laws not being respected, explains Anna Christiernsson, who is an associate senior lecturer in environmental law.
The Askö laboratory is one of the twelve Swedish marine research stations that joined the network European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC) in 2022. Thanks to the collaboration, researchers within the network get access to services, facilities, and technology platforms in Skagerrak, Kattegat, and the Baltic Sea, in addition to the other stations in the network.
Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers. If Greenland’s second largest ice shelf breaks up, it may not recover unless Earth’s future climate cools considerably. This is the result of a new study, published in Nature Communication.
Knowledge exchange between marine scientists and policy makers contributes to informed policy decisions and sustainable management of the oceans. But what does it take for such knowledge exchange to be successful? This question has been analysed in a major international study, that highlights the work of the Baltic Sea Centre as a good example.
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.
A new study performed at Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University has identified the regions and ports at highest risk for labour abuse and illegal fishing. Of more than 750 ports assessed around the world, more than half are associated with risk of labour abuse or illegal fishing.
One of our Baltic Sea Fellows, Wei-Li Hong from the Department of Geological Sciences, today got a prestigious award from the Swedish Foundations’ Starting Grant. We are very proud, says Christoph Humborg, scientific leader at the Baltic Sea Centre and coordinator of the Baltic Fellows interdisciplinary network of young Baltic Sea researchers.
Many of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that end up in the ocean boomerang back to shore after they are re-emitted into air with the crashing of waves, according to a study by researchers at Stockholm University published today in Environmental Science & Technology. The findings suggest that this sea-to-air transport process is a significant contributor to PFAS air pollution in coastal areas.
Land-based pollution and maritime activities puts the coastal zones of the Baltic Sea under a high anthropogenic pressure. In a new study on micropollutants in wastewater emitted in the Baltic Sea catchment, the need for broad scope monitoring of micropollutants in wastewater around the Baltic Sea is highlighted.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a Swedish-led Arctic expedition being postponed with implications for collecting important data on the connection between climate, sea ice and the release of greenhouse gases in the Arctic.
The sea outside of the Askö laboratory is live streamed from a web camera on our weather station. See what the sea looks like right now - Are the waves beating or is the sea calm? Is the sun shining or is the night sky reflected in the sea? Maybe you will see a white tailed eagle fly by or detect some of the birds that are breeding on the islands.
The crisis for Baltic cod is often associated with oxygen deficiency, oxygen-free bottoms and a lack of bottom animals that cod can eat. But now, a new Finnish-Swedish study shows that oxygen conditions have been quite adequate for cod in the southern Baltic Sea for several decades – and that there have been plenty of bottom animals above the halocline.
Single individuals of Atlantic cod and squid occur much further north than previously expected. Scientists participating in the international MOSAiC expedition with research icebreaker Polarstern have found fish and squid in deep water in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. The results from Stockholm University, the Alfred Wegener Institute and colleagues in the European Fisheries Inventory in the Central Arctic Ocean (EFICA) Consortium are published today in the scientific journal Science Advances.
A new fact sheet describes the scientific basus of the eutrophication segment of HELCOM BSAP – how the political vision of a healthy sea can be reached via the basin-wise Maximum allowable inputs and the country-wise Nutrient input ceilings.
A new study by an international consortium that includes researchers from Stockholm University looking at the presence of pharmaceuticals in the world’s rivers found concentrations at potentially toxic levels in more than a quarter of the locations studied. The new study, which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first truly global-scale investigation of pharmaceutical contamination in the environment.
The inputs of nutrients and harmful substances to the Baltic Sea have changed the distribution and composition of the animals living in and on the seafloor. But the whole ecosystem has also undergone several regime shifts during the last century. At the last Baltic Breakfast, Eva Ehrnsten and Maciej Tomczak shared their research on this topic.
The number of great cormorants in Sweden increased greatly during the 1990s and they are now a common species around the Swedish coast and many of the lakes. During the breeding season great cormorants build colonies with a distinctive fishy odor which, along with their voracious appetite for fish, has often made them unpopular. However, great cormorants could give valuable information on environmental contaminants found in aquatic environments according to a new collaborative study from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), the Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM) and Stockholm University.
The recovery of the oxygen-depleted bottoms in the Baltic Sea could be more unpredictable than previously estimated. New research shows that historically, the occurrence of oxygen deficiency has varied rapidly, due to an inherent instability that makes the Baltic Sea particularly sensitive to variations in climate. As the Baltic Sea recovers and approaches the goal of being unaffected by eutrophication, these sharp variations in oxygen depletion may return.
The photos of happy fishermen in the 1980's holding huge cods, almost larger than themselves, are iconic and often contrasted by a small meagre fishes caught today. But this period of time was an anomaly in the Baltic Sea history, and should not be regarded as a reference state, says scientists after having compiled and analysed large quantities of information from the last century.
In a new interdisciplinary project, researchers investigate the connection between physical and biological processes that affect algal blooms and develop tools that can predict how they change in a warmer climate.
A new study from Svalbard gas hydrate mounds shows that microbes are unexpectedly effective in consuming methane from marine sediments before the gas leaks into the ocean causing undesirable consequences for the environment.
Doubling of global demand for aquatic foods calls for a ‘blue food revolution’ to tackle climate change and malnutrition, new research argues. New landmark assessment finds fish, shellfish and algae offer untapped potential for global development if the right policies and investments are put in place.
Helen Coxall (Department of geological sciences) and Margret Steinthorsdottir (the Natural History Museum), together with collaborators from the UK and USA just published an article in the Journal Eos describing their latest collaborative effort to build an interactive platform for cataloguing palaeo ocean temperature proxy data.
Members of IGV are back on dry land after a successful expedition with Icebreaker Oden in the Arctic Ocean. The expedition was part of the international Synoptic Arctic Survey 2021 and lasted 58 days.
Facing the Sea - Essays in Swedish Maritime Studies touches on bowmanship, the nation in maritime magazines, toys as maritime objects - and more. This time, thte CEMAS anthology is in English.
Rising water temperatures and sea levels and less ice, but also more perch and fewer seals. Climate change might affect the Baltic Sea in many different ways. These effects have now been compiled in a comprehensive report, in which several researchers from the Baltic Sea Centre have participated.
Using marine sediment cores collected during the 2019 Ryder expedition to Northern Greenland on icebreaker Oden, the Holocene retreat and advance behavior of Ryder Glacier is reconstructed. This new research shows that while Sherard Osborn Fjord has a physiography conducive to glacier and ice tongue stability, Ryder Glacier still retreated more than 40 km inland from its current position by the Middle Holocene – highlighting the sensitivity of north Greenland's marine glaciers to climate change.
Establishing a solid chronological framework for Arctic marine sediments is a critical first step towards glacial and palaeoceanographic reconstructions. However, this has historically been more challenging than elsewhere in the world, and often results in core chronologies and subsequent paleoenvironmental reconstructions being questioned and overturned. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating provided important constraints on late Quaternary ages for central Arctic marine sediments, and has considerable potential to underpin chronologies in other parts of the Arctic Ocean.
Treated right, coastal zones are important cornerstones in climate change mitigation, but if degraded, they instead release large amounts of greenhouse gases, re-enforcing global warming. Urgent action is needed to preserve and restore the Baltic Sea coasts and use these systems to work in favor of the climate – not against it.
Integrative analyses of molecular and imaging data can lead to more accurate explorations of ocean microbes. This provides valuable information for improving the understanding of an Earth system under anthropogenic change, according to a new study in Nature Communications.
Current rates of plastic emissions globally may trigger effects that we will not be able to reverse, argues a new study by researchers from Sweden, Norway and Germany published on July 2nd in Science.
In a new scientific article scientists present a conceptual idea on how to take ecosystem services into account when evaluating marine protected areas.
A changing climate makes it even more important to reduce the nutrient supply to the Baltic Sea according to our new Policy brief. In the coming decades, continued reductions in emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus from land will yield better oxygen conditions and improved water quality – even in the face of major climate change. These measures also make the Baltic Sea ecosystem more resilient to the changing climate.
A major research funding initiative from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation will enable Finnish and Swedish climate and marine researchers to bring together their expertise and infrastructure. Within CoastClim, the aim is to find out more about ocean–atmosphere interaction and its effects on the climate.
The marine ecosystem in the ice-covered area between Greenland and the North Pole is unexplored, but it is urgent to find out how it works. The Arctic sea ice is melting, which will radically change the ecosystem. This summer, a research expedition on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden will explore one of the world's most inaccessible places.
“Nobody has ever performed these measurements there before, we are first in this giant area,” says the expedition's Chief Scientist Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm.
The Antarctic ice sheet was even more unstable in the past than previously thought, and at times possibly came close to collapse, new research suggests. The findings raise concerns that, in a warmer climate, exposing the land underneath the ice sheet as it retreats will increase rainfall on Antarctica, and this could trigger processes that accelerate further ice loss.
The Swedish island of Gotland faces limited capacity in groundwater reservoirs and increased demand during tourist season. Desalination from the Baltic Sea is a promising method for water supply which will benefit from a forecast of harmful algae blooms.
The project ARTofMELT (Atmospheric rivers and the onset of sea ice melt 2023) centers on an international interdisciplinary research expedition onboard the Swedish research icebreaker Oden to the central Arctic Ocean in May and June 2023.
This research project evaluates basin wide monitoring data from the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI). The aim of the research project is understanding basin wide nutrient and oxygen transformation processes based on long-term monitoring data.
This project aims to use the Baltic Sea to test the hypothesis whether the sediment methane legacy pool, especially derived from the organic carbon legacy pool with large proportion of terrestrial organic carbon, will be a long-lasting source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere from years to centuries.
The polar regions are especially sensitive for climate change and the warming the Arctic is more than twice as fast as elsewhere on Earth. The effects of this warming are large, with a dramatic loss of sea ice as an example.
This research project is conducted within the CoastClim research group and brings together cutting-edge expertise in marine ecology, biogeochemistry and atmospheric physics to quantify the full spectrum of habitat-specific greenhouse gas fluxes and aerosol production in the Baltic coastal zone.
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.
The project compiles and synthesizes data on micropollutants in wastewater emitted in the Baltic Sea drainage basin and reviews effects associated with chemicals in wastewater in the Baltic Sea catchment.
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.
The cryosphere and hydrosphere are among the most dynamic components of the Earth system. Interactions between them play a critical role in global climate such as influencing ocean current patterns through redistributing heat and salt.
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.
The transdisciplinary FORCE project will identify the most effective management actions for reversing biodiversity loss and increasing resilience to climate change of the Baltic Sea coast.
The goal of the project FutureMares is to provide socially and economically viable actions and strategies in support of nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Pollution Load Compilations (PLC) have been an integral part of The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) assessments since 1987, focusing on annual and periodic assessments of inputs of nutrients and selected hazardous substances. PLC-8 provides assessments of nutrient and contaminant inputs to the Baltic Sea.
In this project the goal is to develop new knowledge about how horse-dense and trampled horse paddocks affect the aquatic environment, and to contribute with a scientific basis for measures on horse farms to reduce the nutrient losses from horse husbandries.
Which foreign languages were spoken among 18th century Scandinavian sailors? How would a captain manage politics whilst at sea? What happens if we consider global circulation of knowledge "from below"? These are a few questions that the "Prize Papers", documents from over 3500 Scandinavian ships seized by Great Britain between 1650 and 1810, can help answer.
This research project studies the herring spawning activity in the Stockholm Archepelgo in relation to population structure and integrity, by measuring the density of herring larvae during the spawning period.
The BalticHER-project studies the population structure of locally spawning herring on the Swedish east coast. The study will evaluate by cross-checking genetical and otolith chemistry methods whether natal homing is a population structuring mechanism.
The project is part of Stockholm University's interdisciplinary network of young Baltic Sea researchers - Baltic Sea Fellows. This initiative is a development of the governmental funding of strategic research areas (SFO).
Levande kust is a full-scale demonstration project with the objective to show that it is possible to restore a eutrophic bay and to find out the costs and lessons that can be learned from such a project.
MOCCHA (Microbiology-Ocean-Cloud-Coupling – in the High Arctic) – ARCTIC OCEAN 2018 was an international and interdisciplinary research expedition to the central Arctic Ocean during the summer of 2018.
The overall aim of this project is to explore the link between mangrove ecosystem services (MES) and community livelihoods and well-being, changes in MES and associated drivers of change, adaptation options and their management in Tanzania, using the Rufiji Delta and Pangani Estuary as case studies.
Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas and increased atmospheric concentrations of CH4 account for 20% of the postindustrial global warming. Marine sediments along continental margins contain vast amounts of CH4, stored as solid gas hydrate.
Saltmarshes are some of the most efficient carbon sinks, but climate warming and altered land use threatens to diminish their diversity and turn them into sources of the potent greenhouse gas methane.
By studying the oceanic and atmospheric overturning circulation it is possible to for example track the heat, salt and moisture exchanges between the low and high latitudes.
PERFORCE3 will greatly improve the understanding of these globally pervasive contaminants, find solutions for PFAS contamination problems and improve environmental and human health risk assessment frameworks and policies.
Pollution Load Compilations (PLC), have been an integral part of The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) assessments since 1987, focusing on assessments of inputs of nutrients and selected hazardous substances.
In the project Pilot Stockholm Archipelago, the aim is to through local involvement develop and test a management model for regional ecosystem-based marine management that will help achieve the Swedish environmental objectives. Please switch to the Swedish page for more information about the project.
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.
The proposed project calls for an investigation of mechanisms that led to the retreat of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) from the Antarctic continental shelf since the Last Glacial Maximum.
The Ryder 2019 expedition with the Swedish icebreaker Oden targets the unexplored marine realm of Ryder Glacier, more specifically the Sherard Osborne Fjord and adjacent area of northern Nares Strait and the southern Lincoln Sea.
The Arctic Ocean is warming at an alarming rate and Arctic sea ice extent is at an all-time low. How will these drastic changes impact future Arctic marine ecosystems and what are the ocean-climate driving mechanisms that we must look out for to warn of a future change?
The TRIACID project has mapped acidification trends in different regions of the Baltic Sea during the past 40 years. The project has described spatial variation and trends in pH status, and the main drivers of changing pH have been identified.
Icebreaker led expeditions into the central Arctic Ocean have retrieved vast numbers of marine sediment cores that record environmental changes on millennial and orbital timescales. A major obstacle to interpreting these records is to establish accurate age models, a unique challenge in the Arctic where many traditional dating methods do not appear to work.
This project aims to decipher the Arctic Ocean evolution of sea ice, ice sheets, and ocean circulation in the Arctic Ocean that comprise key components of the climate system.
Dissertation project aimed at examining the relationship between the two legal principles (qui iure and sic utere) which are usually considered to define 1. territorial state sovereignty and 2. the limits to this sovereignty imposed by the international law of borders.
This citizen science project was launched in May 2021, and since then citizens have been engaged in finding new knowledge about algae along the Swedish coast in the Baltic Sea. The project will be summarized in a peer reviewed article.
My group runs multiple projects in multiple constellations to study how evolution of brain and behaviour are interlinked. These projects span between lab experiments on intraspecific variation to large-scale phylogenetic comparative analyses on thousands of vertebrate species.
Atmospheric CH4 concentration has tripled since pre-industrial times and is now increasing faster than ever in the observational record. Our current inability to predict the trajectory of atmospheric CH4 concentrations indicates a formidable knowledge gap within global CH4 dynamics and its response to climate warming.
This project will study the stability and deglacial history of the marine cryosphere in the area of the Petermann glacier, where substantial ice drainage occurs from the northwestern part of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
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.
Will European water legislation result in better water quality? In this project we analyse current indicators and measures to reduce chemical pollution.
ZeroPM will enable the EU Green Deal‘s ambition towards Zero Pollution of Persistent, Mobile Substances. ZeroPM will interlink Prevention, Prioritization and Removal strategies to achieve its goals.
The Baltic Nest Institute (BNI) at Stockholm University provides scientific basis for ecosystem-based management of the Baltic Sea by maintaining and developing data bases and models with a holistic Baltic Sea perspective.
As a continuation of the governmental funding of strategic Baltic Sea research, this interdisciplinary network of young Baltic Sea, Baltic Sea Fellows, formed at Stockholm University 2018. Their research cover the whole range from basic marine research to applied legal aspects and decision support.
The Baltic Sea is one of the best-surveyed and studied seas on Earth. Yet the Baltic Sea circulation and its role in the complex climate system is neither fully quantified nor understood, in spite of important implications for coastal societies of the Baltic Sea region.
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.
Over long timescales, the circulation systems co-evolve with ice sheets, mountain ranges, and redistributions of carbon between the atmosphere, ocean and land. The circulation and associated feedbacks influence exchanges of energy and materials between compartments of the climate system, and create teleconnections and natural climate variability.
The Ecography Lab at the department is engaged in an ongoing research project focusing on environmental and multispecies anthropology, with the aim of combining ecology and ethnography into one ecographic method and way on anlysis.
Planktonic partnerships, or symbioses, between eukaryotic and prokaryotic plankton that are major players in the Nitrogen and Carbon cycles of the World’s oceans
How natural and anthropogenic factors change and control the environmental conditions of the open Baltics Sea and its archipelagos, with focus on the pelagic zone
We study drivers of food web interactions and community dynamics to better understand the ecological impacts of environmental change on ecosystem functioning.
Geochemistry is the study of planetary chemical processes. The field encompasses the study of organic, inorganic chemistry and biogeochemical processes
In the North Atlantic, a mighty current system conveys, via the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Current, warm surface waters to northerly subpolar areas where deep water is formed. This current system, which is an important link in the global ocean circulation connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, also carries warm Atlantic water into the Arctic Ocean.
We investigate hydrological processes in water and land environments, the anthropogenic effects on these processes and their variability and change, both in time and space, to contribute to the knowledge and capacity advancement needed for sustainable development.
