Photo: Sven Erik Arndt /Azote.

More than 1000 people from EU countries around the Baltic Sea will gather in Stockholm on the 8-9 November to discuss the region’s future. Subjects on the agenda include a sustainable environment, job growth, and greater international cooperation.

A series of seminars will highlight different aspects of creating a healthier Baltic Sea. In one of these seminars, Baltic Eye at Stockholm University's Baltic Sea Centre will bring together scientists and politicians to discuss the importance of taking action to reduce external loads of phoshorus from land to the sea.

It is well known that phosphorus has accumulated in the Baltic Sea and, in a complex process, moves back and forth between the sediments and water column, often contributing to algal blooms. This is called the internal phosphorus load. Voices in the debate claim that the internal load is so large that there is no point in reducing phosphorus from agriculture and sewage, which  are the major sources of new phosphorus to the Baltic Sea.

The internal phosphorus load will slow the recovery of the Baltic Sea, but is not a cause of eutrophication. Rather, the internal load is the result of decades of external nutrient loads.

It took decades for the sea to become degraded by eutrophication and it will take decades to recover. Further reducing leakage from agriculture and sewage are important to mitigate the extent eutrophication.

The seminar will take place at the 7:th EUSBSR meeting on Wednesday, November 9 at 10:40 to 12:00 in room Lindgren and will begin with three speakers:

• Alf Norkko, Professor, Tvärminne Zoological Station, Helsinki University
• Bo Gustafsson, Director, Baltic Nest Institute and Senior Scientist at the Baltic Sea Centre, Stockholm University
• Michelle McCrackin, Research Scientist at the Baltic Eye at the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Center

The speakers will be followed by a panel discussion that features scientific experts and politicians from Sweden, Estonia, and Finland:

Politicians

• Matilda Ernkrans, Social Democratic Party, Member of the Swedish Parliament, Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Agriculture (tbc)
• Saara-Sofia Sirén, member of Finnish Parliament and Environment Committee
• Rainer Vakra, Social Democratic Party Faction, Chair of the Environmental Committee of the Parliament of Estonia

Experts

• Alf Norkko, Professor, Tvärminne Zoological Station, Helsinki University
• Bo Gustafsson, Director, Baltic Nest Institute and Senior Scientist at the Baltic Sea Centre, Stockholm University
• Annika Svanbäck, PhD in Soil Science, Research Scientist at Baltic Eye at the Baltic Sea Centre, Stockholm University
• Michelle McCrackin, Research Scientist at the Baltic Eye at the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Center

The discussion will be moderated by Gun Rudquist, Policy and Advocacy Officer at Baltic Eye.