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Plants, Animals and Nature

On this page we collect articles about Plants, Animals and Nature.

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News

Students standing by the shore. The Baltic Sea in the background.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

PhD students connect coast and society in a changing climate

Solving complex questions about interactions between the sea and climate change, and how they relate to society, requires a broad set of skills. In a new research school, PhD students from diverse scientific disciplines at Stockholm University get a unique opportunity to learn how transdisciplinary approaches and research communication can lead to sustainable management of coastal environments.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New policy brief: Eutrophication must be reduced to limit coastal methane emissions

The Swedish coasts are currently net sources of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, mainly in the form of methane. Reducing these methane emissions requires more measures to combat eutrophication. These are the findings of the Baltic Sea Centre's researchers in a new policy brief.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: Ocean acidification – an emerging problem also in the Baltic Sea

Large anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide don’t only cause global warming, but also acidification of the oceans. In the Baltic Sea pH is expected to decrease between 0.1 and 0.4 units during this century depending on future emissions. The effects of ocean acidification on organisms have already been visible and are expected to increase, but not for the reason previously thought.

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Stickle backs in hand

Having good neighbours and few top predators make predatory fish populations more resilient

A regime shift is gradually spreading through the archipelagos of the Swedish Baltic Sea coast, where shallow bays, previously dominated by pike and perch have one by one become dominated by one of their prey species, the three-spined stickleback. Now, research shows that the ability of the pike and perch to maintain dominance over stickleback increases if there are plenty of pike and perch close-by that can help the local population withstand the stickleback intrusion. The researchers also found that the resilience of the pike and perch populations decreased with increasing predation from grey seal and great cormorant.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New policy brief: Ocean acidification poses another threat to the Baltic Sea ecosystem

Ocean acidification is expected to become significant also in the Baltic Sea in the coming decades. It represents an additional pressure for the already stressed ecosystem and makes it even more important to act to reduce other pressures, such as eutrophication and hazardous substances.

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Department of Environmental Science

Environmental Science Research Day 2024: A call to arms for academia and activists alike

In an ambitious gathering of 170 participants, organized by the Department of Environmental Science and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research, the Aula Magna auditorium played host to the Environmental Science Research Day on 1 February 2024.

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Nyfångad strömming
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Playing roulette with fish stocks, sustainably

How high a risk are we prepared to take with fish stocks, with fisheries and with the marine environment? That question is at the heart of the recent move by the European and the Council to amend the multiannual plans for commercial fisheries in the Baltic and other regions. It deserves to be discussed openly. So far it hasn’t. In effect, the Commission and the Council are now prepared to take much greater risks than they were a few years ago. This risk-prone behaviour is escalating now, despite the history of stock collapses in the Baltic within the past 10 years.

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Noushin Emami tittar in i värmeskåp för myggor

Malaria scientist decodes the world's deadliest parasites

The malaria mosquito is spreading some of the world's deadliest diseases, but not on its own. It is controlled by ancient parasites that use their code language to make their host, human or animal, act in a way that benefits its survival. A code language that molecular biologist Noushin Emami at Stockholm University is working to decode.

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Department of Environmental Science

New study sheds new light on forests' role in climate and water cycle

Forests, which cover a third of Earth's land surface, are pivotal in carbon storage and the water cycle, though the full scope of their impact remains to be fully understood. In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Stockholm University and international colleagues provide new insights into the complex role forests play in the climate system and water cycle.

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Marine fish farms.
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

Underestimated risks of pesticides in food production 

Food production in agriculture and fish farms uses large amounts of chemicals such as pesticides and antibiotics to secure harvests, but we currently know very little about the environmental effects of this use. This is according to a new thesis from Stockholm University, which suggests ways to improve this information.

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Department of Environmental Science

Scientists to unveil how chemical exposure can affect generations to come

Research led by Oskar Karlsson, Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Science, aims to shed light on the long-term effects of chemical exposure across generations. Karlsson's team is tackling the daunting task of safeguarding human health against an estimated 350,000 chemicals in the market, a figure likely on the lower side.

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Makrofoto av hundstarr
Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

Wetland plants can clean water from PFAS

Many lakes and rivers are contaminated with the environmental contaminant PFAS. Researchers at Stockholm University show in a new study that floating wetlands with wetland plants can purify water from PFAS by up to 40 percent in one day. The study is published in the scientific journal “Journal of Environmental Management”.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Analysis: Weakening the management of Baltic fisheries

The European Commission and the Council’s ministers are moving rapidly towards a revision of the multiannual plans for fisheries. Unfortunately, the haste is not matched by the quality of the proposal or the logic of its justification. On the contrary, the ministers seem to have fundamentally misunderstood both the plans they want to amend, the science that underpins annual decisions on fishing quotas, and how the plans and the science interact, writes Charles Berkow, fisheries policy expert at Baltic Sea Centre.

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Department of Environmental Science

Unraveling the secret role of plant emissions in cloud formation and climate change

Researchers at the Department of Environmental Science are studying the intricate narrative of how plant emissions shape our climate. This expansive project, supported by the Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation, intertwines field experiments in the verdant expanses of Swedish coniferous forests and the lush tropics with advanced theoretical research, aiming to refine our understanding of climate.

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Natasja Börjeson
Department of Environmental Science

Natasja Börjeson to participate in the Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab 2024

The Baltic Sea Festival Science Lab, returning for its second year, has announced Natasja Börjeson, a postdoctoral scientist from the Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, as one of its key participants for the 2024 edition.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

ANALYSIS: “Those are our rules, and if you don’t like them, well, we’ll make others”

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?

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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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

The State of the Baltic Sea - report and recording available

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.

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Peter Heintzman

Using genetics to map the impacts of prehistoric climate change

Our climate is becoming ever warmer – impacting plant and animal ecosystems. But this is by no means the first time Earth has experienced climate change. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Peter Heintzman is using genetics to examine how prehistoric climate change has impacted life on Earth.

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Assistant Professor Birgit Wild
Department of Environmental Science

Birgit Wild's prestigious appointment marks a deep dive into the Arctic's hidden methane reservoirs

Assistant Professor Birgit Wild from the Department of Environmental Science, has been appointed a Wallenberg Fellow 2023, joining the ranks of eight distinguished researchers from Stockholm University. Wild, whose research has long focused on land permafrost and its response to climate warming, is now shifting her gaze to the mysteries of subsea permafrost beneath the Arctic Ocean.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

The proposed new Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive – what happens now?

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.

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Mars perseverance debris
Department of Environmental Science

Crafting “a New Song” for Mars and Beyond

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New study: How will acidification affect the Baltic Sea by 2100?

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Major Baltic Sea research initiative - 12 PhD positions open

Within a new graduate school in ocean, climate and environmental issues, 12 doctoral students will be admitted at several of Stockholm University's departments.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

PFAS back to haunt us – through sea spray

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

The smell of the sea – a key to understanding climate change?

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.

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Tasmanian tiger specimen

RNA for the first time recovered from an extinct species

A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time. The researchers note that their findings have relevant implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including both the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as for studying pandemic RNA viruses.

DNA Research - Theme page Plants, Animals and Nature - Theme page
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Drastic measures can lead to ecological and economic success - analysis of proposed fishing ban

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.

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Screenshot showing three squares from the pre-training of memory tests.

The sense of order distinguishes humans from other animals

Remembering the order of information is central for a person when participating in conversations, planning everyday life, or undergoing an education. A new study, published in the scientific journal PLoS One, shows that this ability is probably human unique. Even the closest relatives of humans, such as bonobos, do not learn order in the same way.

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Jacob Carstensen
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Large Baltic Sea Prize to two outstanding researchers

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.

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Nyfångad strömming
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

European Commission: Stop targeted herring fishing in the Central Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia

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.

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Three-spined stickleback
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Trawl survey indicates more stickleback and less herring in the archipelago

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.

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Invasion of plankton species reveals a seasonally ice-free Arctic ocean during the Last Interglacial

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.

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Två vitgula fjärilar möts huvud mot huvud

Seasonal specialists respond differently to a changing climate

Summer and winter seasons constitute vastly different living conditions for animals and plants in many parts of the world. So how have different organisms evolved to cope with this variation? A study by researchers at Stockholm University published in Nature Communications investigates this question by studying two closely related butterfly species, the small white butterfly and the green-veined white butterfly.

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Dishwashing detergent and oil in water.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Lack of updated regulations for phosphorus in EC detergent proposal defies HELCOM agreement

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Scientist on the TAC advice: Herring fisheries should be closed completely

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

ANALYSIS: Avoiding a fishing catastrophe – erring on the side of caution?

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Animals that feed on cyanobacteria

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?

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Alumnus portrait: "Important to implement the knowledge in a valuable way"

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: Action needed to reduce impact from shipping

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Scientists in Brussels call for cautious Baltic Sea fisheries

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Bottom fauna in Bothnian Sea adapts to new diet

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.

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SU researchers will lead the development of new sustainable fibers for consumer use

The BIO-Lush consortium led by professor Aji Mathew from MMK/SUCCeSS has been awarded almost 5 M€ in funding from the EU-call Circular Bio-based Europe (CBE). The four-year project is planned to start in 2023 and will address a growing need to utilize biomass for sustainable and high-quality fibre extraction.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: Messing with the seabed – and below it

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.

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Rachel Foster

Plankton - important for the climate

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?

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Sediment bacteria important for the phosphorus turnover in the Baltic Sea

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Laying the foundation for our understanding of the Baltic Sea

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!

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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.

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Ice bergs at Greenland and the West Antarctic

Overshooting climate targets could significantly increase risk for tipping cascades

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Analysis: What the Kunming-Montreal Global biodiversity framework should mean for the Baltic Sea

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Five options for restoring global biodiversity after the UN agreement

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Regulations are required to save the herring on the Christmas table

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.

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Child picking coffee berries

Child labour contributes to the preservation of forest cover

The work with forest preservation in southwestern Ethiopia, where smallholder coffee farmers play an important part, is essential for global sustainability. But there are also negative consequences to the synergy between smallholder cash crop production and biodiversity values. A new study conducted by researchers from Stockholm University, published in the International Journal of Educational Development, shows that child labour plays an important role in the system.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Marine ecologist Henrik Svedäng: "The eel seems to be falling victim to a culture war"

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Scientists ahead of COP15: “Improvements are urgently needed”

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Researchers: Additional chemicals need to be considered in the new Global Biodiversity Framework

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.

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Successful investment in ocean research network

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Modelling key to optimising outcome of aluminium treatment

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

EU Commission proposed stopping eel fishing for six months in 2023

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.

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Nestling birds recognize their local song ‘dialect’

A recent study, published in Current Biology, led by researchers at Stockholm University and Uppsala University, has shown that juvenile songbirds react to hearing the songs they will eventually produce as adults, even when they are as young as 12 days old. Experiments conducted on nestling pied flycatchers across Europe demonstrate that they preferentially respond to songs from their own species and, remarkably, their own population.

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Fiskstim i havet

Ocean conservation boosts climate change mitigation and adaptation

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.

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Claudia Mohr

From Trees to Clouds: towards understanding the role of forests in climate change

Plants are known to not only remove CO2 from the atmosphere but to also emit thousands of compounds, known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), whose role in climate change has largely been “overlooked.” Now, researchers from Stockholm University will launch a new research project into the role of VOC emissions in climate change.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Policy analyst: EU Commission needs to ask the right questions

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.

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Male reindeer walking on a paved road

The majority of reindeer grazing land is under cumulative pressures

Reindeer herding has a long history in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. It has shaped the Fennoscandian mountain landscape, and is also seen as means to mitigate climate change effects on vegetation. Yet a new study published in Scientific Reports shows that the majority of this grazing land is exposed to cumulative pressures, threatened by the expansion of human activities towards the north.

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Chickens around a pot of grain

Changes to animal feed could supply food for one billion people

While millions around the world face the threat of famine or malnutrition, the production of feed for livestock and fish is tying up limited natural resources that could be used to produce food for people. New research from Stockholm University, published in Nature Food, shows how adjustment to the feeding of livestock and fish could maintain production while making more food available for people.

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Successful strategic funding of marine research

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: No clear cause behind the collapse of the eastern Baltic cod

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.

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Dunk med ogräsmedel.

"Company withholds information on negative effects in glyphosate evaluation"

A previously approved variant of the herbicide glyphosate causes negative effects on brain development in rats, according to the US environmental authority EPA. Researchers at Stockholm University are now criticizing that this knowledge has not come to the attention of EU authorities for the evaluation of current variants.

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Forskningsfartyget Electra
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Electra on major expedition to map Baltic Sea methane

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.

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Poplar

Fast-growing poplars can release land for food production

Researchers at Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have developed a novel value chain for production of textile and bio-fuel from fast-growing poplars. By applying sustainable catalysis on these poplars grown on marginal land in Nordic climates, the demand for cotton can be reduced. Consequently, considerable areas of productive agricultural land can be converted from cotton to food production.

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Tusk from woolly mammoth emerging from the ground

Nearly a hundred genes have been lost during the woolly mammoth’s evolution

A new study shows that 87 genes have been affected by deletions or short insertions during the course of the mammoth’s evolution. The researchers note that their findings have implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including the woolly mammoth. The study was published in the journal iScience by researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, a collaboration between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New report on effects of offshore windfarms on marine life

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.

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Varg. Foto: Love Dalén

Wolf turned into dog both in the east and the west

Today’s dogs descended from two different wolf populations that were domesticated in East or Central Asia. Researchers have come to this conclusion after analyzing DNA from prehistoric wolves in the northern hemisphere. Dogs of African and European origin also have a certain heritage from prehistoric wolves in the Middle East in their DNA. The study was recently published in Nature.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

60th anniversary for the Askö Laboratory

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.

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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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Sea Centre critical of recent TAC advice for Baltic Sea fisheries

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: The Danish example shows that nitrogen leakage can be reduced

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.

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Anna Christiernsson porträttbild

Failings in legislation intended to protect biodiversity

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.

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”There is a mass extinction of plants”

Most of what we think we know about extinction is based on the case of mammals and birds – but they represent only a fraction of our biodiversity. WWF's latest Living Planet Report from 2020 was the first report to mention plant extinction. Aelys Humphreys authored one of the sections of the report. Her research focuses on plants that have become extinct in recent centuries.

Plants, Animals and Nature - Theme page
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Sea Centre's work highlighted as a good example of knowledge exchange

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.

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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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Fiskehamn med båtar i olika storlekar. Cykel i förgrunden.

Study maps risks of labour abuse and illegal fishing at world's ports

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.

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Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences

A poorly known and critically endangered species of Merlin’s grass surprises researchers

A poorly known and critically endangered species of Merlin’s grass (Isoetaceae) endemic to the Eastern Cape of South Africa is demonstrated to be of substantial evolutionary significance. The species, Isoetes wormaldii, is sister to the rest of the family and genetically and morphologically distinct.

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Simmande torsk.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

New study: Cod's latest crisis is not due to lack of oxygen

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.

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Forskarteam fångar fisk i Arktis 2020 under expeditionen MOSAiC.

Unexpected fish and squid found in the Central Arctic Ocean

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Breakfast: "It's a completely different sea"

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.

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Cormorant eggs – an opportunity for contaminant monitoring

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Recovery from deoxygenation may be unpredictable: new study

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.

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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Scientists: Don’t look at the 1980's as a reference for the Baltic Sea

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.

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Waves reaching shore.
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Baltic Sea Centre research behind new climate report

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.

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Healthy and diverse coastal ecosystems in the Baltic Sea
Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre

Policy brief: Healthy coastal ecosystems are crucial to mitigate climate change

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.

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Sperm cell

Females supercharge sperm evolution in animals

Sperm size varies dramatically among different animal species. But why is sperm size so variable when they share the same job – to fertilize eggs? In a new article published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, researchers from Stockholm University show that animal sperm evolution become supercharged only when sperm swim inside females.

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Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm på Nordpolen under en tidigare expedition. Foto: Peter Sylvander

Research expedition to unexplored part of the Arctic

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.

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African clawed frog

Multigenerational effects of pesticides

The effects of the endocrine disruptor linuron on frogs are not limited to those exposed, but are passed on to their offspring and grand-offspring. First generation offspring have reduced body weight and decreased fertility, while second generation offspring have increased body weight and a disrupted metabolism. This is demonstrated by a new study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University that has now been published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

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Research projects

Argonaute TRIBE

Antibody-based methods such as CLIP can detect direct interactions between microRNAs and their mRNA targets in cell populations with nucleotide resolution. However, these methods typically require millions of cells, and cannot be applied to study the single cells where the interactions occur.

ECSTATIC

Exploring Causes of Species and Trait Alterations in Terrestrial ecosystems: Impacts and Consequences

Ecology of burnet moths

In this project we study habitat preferences, population dynamics, phenology and host plant preferences in six co-occurring species of burnet moths in southern Sweden. Yearly inventories have been carried out since 2012 and currently include about 100 sites with burnet moths.

Establishment of epigenetic landscapes

Epigenetic patterns of histone modifications contribute to the maintenance of tissue-specific gene expression, but little is known about how such patterns are initially formed during early embryo development. We study this process in Drosophila.

Genome evolution in parasitic plants

Parasitic plants obtain part of or all of their nutrients from another plant. We study one of the most well-known parasitic plants, the European mistletoe, Viscum album, but parasitism has evolved 12 times within the flowering plants and some 4750 species are parasites.

Horse husbandry effects on eutrophication

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.

Horses grazing by the ocean.
Landscape indicators for biological diversity

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency's call "Indicators for biodiversity at landscape level" aims to increase our knowledge about the effects of fragmentation on biological diversity, important ecological structures, functions at a landscape level and proposals on how this can be measured.

Land use changed over the past 200 years
Law and seascapes in the Baltic Sea context

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).

Seagrass under the water
Living Coast Project

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.

Nature protection and dispensation

An interdisciplinary research project that have analysed how county councils and municipalities apply the rules on biotope protection and species protection when examining exemptions.

Blomma
PERFORCE3

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.

Research
Paleotranscriptomics

Today, sequencing of DNA from ancient samples is a standard method in Paleogenomics, however, RNA is generally unstable due to the ubiquitous presence of RNases in the environment.

Research
Pilot Stockholm Archipelago: Regional ecosystem-based marine management

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.

Practicing Food Sovereignty

Practicing Food Sovereignty focuses on indigenous communities and agricultural practices in four countries of the Eastern Himalaya region: Bhutan, Chittagong Hill Tracks of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Northeast India.

Ryder Glacier Expedition 2019

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.

Ryder expedition group photo on icebreader Oden's deck. Photo: Lars Lehnert
The Stat Sovereignty and Its Limits – a Legal Genetic Study

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.

Research
The citizen science algae project

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.

The importance of the MEP pathway in the microbiome and its effect on behavior

Our main aim is to study the effects of bacterial phosphoantigens (HMBPP and IPP) on appetite. We introduced these into mice by gavage and followed the differences in weight gain and gene transcription from relevant tissues. An unexpected effect on male salivary glands focused our interest also on their effects on immune response.

Research
Thriving bays in the Baltic Sea

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.

Baltic bay through fisheye lens
Transcription, coregulators and histone acetylation

Gene transcription is essential for cell identity and its misregulation causes disease. This project explores the connection between transcription and chromatin modifications that make genes accessible to the transcriptional machinery.

Research
Who owns nature?

A real estate law study over the relationship between the ownership rights and the protection of nature.

Spruce forest
ZeroPM

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.

Research
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Research groups

Baltic Sea Fellows

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.

Foto: Philipp Deus / Unsplash.
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Ecography Lab

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.

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Group AML Karlson

Group AML Karlson studies Food web and Ecosystem ecology, Ecotoxicology and Stress ecology, Environmental monitoring and Stable isotope techniques.

Hanna Kaliff
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Group Bengtsson

Obesity is a major inducer of type II diabetes and it is estimated by the World Health Organization that over 500 million people worldwide suffer from either of these disorders, with the incidence increasing dramatically over the last 10 years.

Tore Bengtsson
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Group Bryant

We aim to create a universal molecular framework, where any molecule can be predicted with AI. With this technology, the design of new molecules will be possible at the click of a button – for any application.

Fotograf: Patrick Bryant
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Group Emami

We work on infectious-disease biology with a focus on host-pathogen-vector signalling-communication. We provide a fundamental/quantitative description of communication in infection-biology/behaviour plasticity, and genetics towards the design of novel scientific technologies.

Noushin Emami
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Group Faye

Our aim is to study the effects of bacterial phosphoantigens (HMBPP and IPP) on appetite. We introduced these into mice by gavage and followed the differences in weight gain and gene transcription from relevant tissues. An unexpected effect on male salivary glands focused our interest also on their effects on immune response.

Ingrid Faye
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Group Jastroch

We investigate the physiology and molecular mechanisms of energy metabolism from the organism to the molecule. We focus on metabolic aspects during obesity, adipose tissue biology, mitochondrial mechanisms and thermogenesis.

Martin Jastroch
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Group Pawlowski

Our research is focussed on actinorhizal nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbiosis, a topic relevant for the understanding of root nodule symbioses in general as well as for the role of actinorhizal plants in soil restoration, shelter belts and erosion control.

medicago
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Group Rydin

In my group, we are interested in macroevolution in vascular plants, the relationship between structure and function, and diversity and distribution in time and space; how features and plant groups evolve over millions of years.

cratonia
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Group Slotte

Group Slotte uses genomic tools to test predictions of evolutionary theory, with particular emphasis on the evolution of plant mating system variation and supergenes.

supergene
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Group Theopold

We are interested in the innate immune system, its activation, development and interaction with other aspects of physiology. To understand innate immunity at the organismic level, we use the vinegar fly Drosophila melanogaster.

Ulrich Theopold
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Group Visa

Our research aims at understanding the mechanisms by which RNA and RNA degradation by the exosome contribute to chromatin regulation, gene expression and genome integrity.

Neus Visa
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