Session title: |
Coastal and offshore exchange processes |
Conveners: |
Kai Myrberg, Andreas Lehmann and Vladimir Ryabchenko |
Description: |
Transport and mixing of nutrients, sewage water and other pollutants from river mouth to the open sea are determined by the characteristics of the coastal regions and key physical processes like upwelling, coastal jet currents, sea-land breeze and sea ice dynamics. Transport processes have also been shown to be of major importance for fish stock recruitment of cod and sprat. The aim of the session is to provide an integrated view and improved understanding on physical and biogeochemical fluxes and transports in the coastal area under changing climate conditions. We encourage especially contributions of advanced field observations including satellite data and high resolution physical as well as biogechemical modelling which improves our understanding of the dynamics of exchange processes between the coastal area and the open sea. |
Session title: |
Marine acidification |
Conveners: |
Mike Thorndyke, Carol Turley, Ulf Riebesell and Jon Havenhand |
Description: |
Surface waters in the world’s oceans have already experienced a pH reduction of about 0.1 units. The trends indicate further decrease of pH. In the Baltic, the long term pH trends are similar and in some areas more rapid than in the ocean’s. The effects of marine acidification, ranging from the first life stage of calcifiers up to fisheries, are only beginning to be discovered. The research in this area is very limited, though enough to state that there are changes in the ocean’s composition and there are reactions of marine organisms due to marine acidification, but most consequences are unknown or uncertain. However, the marine acidification is most likely to be of major importance to the ecosystems of today. In the Baltic, the trends are similar and in some areas more rapid than the worlds oceans. Areas of interest for the Baltic sea: Long term trends of pH, affects on marine biology by a decreasing pH environment, geological history, calculation of the chemical stability constants in brackish waters. |
Session title: |
The carbon/CO2 cycle in semi-enclosed and shelf seas: Present state and anthropogenic impacts |
Conveners: |
Alberto Borges, Toby Tyrrell and Bernd Schneider |
Description: |
Traditionally, biogeochemical research in coastal seas has focused on the cycling of nutrients. The production and decomposition of organic carbon was considered to be closely linked to the uptake and release of nutrients on the basis of the classical Redfield ratios and interactions with the marine CO2 system were entirely ignored. The situation changed when it was recognized that coastal seas may play an important role for the atmospheric CO2 budget and that the dissolution of increasing atmospheric CO2 causes a shift in the marine CO2 system which may affect the functioning of the ecosystem. Since then several national and international research activities have been initiated which are related to the carbon/CO2 cycle in semi-enclosed and shelf seas and are addressing issues such as the uptake of anthropogenic CO2 (continental shelf pump) and ocean acidification. We are inviting contributions based on observations and/or modelling. |
Session title: |
Impact of changing climate on the Baltic Sea ecosystem |
Conveners: |
Markus Meier and Thomas Neumann |
Description: |
Measures against eutrophication in the Baltic Sea have been discussed for a long time. The recently signed Baltic Sea Action Plan of HELCOM will hopefully lead to significant nutrient load reductions. However, eutrophication and related oxygen deficiency of bottom waters will also depend on how climate change affects water-column stratification and how nutrient runoff affects organic matter production. As the complex response of the marine ecosystem to changing climate is unknown, improved observations, analysis and modeling tools are necessary to increase the predictability. Contributions are invited on better understanding the response of the marine ecosystem to hydrographic changes. These contributions might be observational or modeling studies of the physical and biogeochemical conditions and of all parts of the food web in past, present and future climates. |
Session title: |
The Baltic Sea water circulation and mixing - observations and modelling |
Conveners: |
Jan Piechura, Adolf Stips and Jüri Elken |
Description: |
Part I of the session would focus on different scales, from local to basin scale, general circulation of the Baltic Sea, its physics, causes and consequences. Such features like meso-scale eddies, internal waves, surface and deep currents, fronts and cross frontal and inter layers exchange, transport and their role in the ecosystem functioning could be presented. Part II of the session invites contribution to turbulent mixing in the Baltic Sea, as small steps to the great challenge to understand the Baltic Sea overturning circulation. This is known to be key for many processes relevant for the marine ecosystem, such as transport of nutrients from the sediments to the euphotic zone, transport of salt and oxygen via dense bottom currents to the deeper basins or the dynamics of primary production in the upper layers of the Baltic Sea. |
Session title: |
Operational Oceanography and Coastal Observatories |
Conveners: |
Hans Dahlin, Nicolai Kliem and Urmas Lips |
Description: |
New observing and modelling systems that combine developments in marine natural science and technology would improve the performance of now- and forecasts of sea conditions. In order to detect environmental change, to identify its causes and to forecast the future conditions of the Baltic Sea, we need observational data in a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Important components are the long-term in-situ observations with fast data delivery, stable and verified models, and also data assimilation schemes and validation principles to combine observations and model simulations. The aim of the session is to highlight recent and emerging developments in the field of operational oceanography and coastal observatories. Submissions are invited to cover both the physical (e.g. waves, currents, thermohaline structure and related fields) and biogeochemical (e.g., inherent optical properties, chlorophyll concentration, primary production, nutrient cycling) aspects with respect to observations, models, and data assimilation and validation principles. In several ocean areas there is a very close co-operation between basic science and the development of operational oceanography. In the case of the Baltic operational oceanography has for several years been partly separated from its basic science. In the future we would benefit from working in closer cooperation. |
Session title: |
Bentho-pelagic couplings in the Baltic ecosystem |
Conveners: |
Teresa Radziejewska, Michael Olesen and Stefan Forster |
Description: |
Interactions between the pelagic and the benthic domains have become a paradigm of biological oceanography. Downward fluxes of materials from the water column have been shown to affect benthic communities and sedimentary processes. Numerous aspects of downward flux effects remain, however, unclear. Moreover, the sediments contain records of past fluxes (e.g., carotenoid pigments), thus helping to elucidate e.g., the history of eutrophication. In addition, sediments act also as repositories of various propagules (e.g., those of cyanobacteria), thus assisting in the persistence of populations of water column organisms. We invite contributions that explore various aspects and effects both of downward fluxes and of contribution of sedimentary systems to pelagic processes in the Baltic. |
Session title: |
Coastal and offshore developments in the Baltic: impacts and assessment |
Conveners: |
Juha-Markku Leppänen, Jesper Andersen and Georg Martin |
Description: |
Like numerous other marine areas in the world, the Baltic Sea is at present an arena of numerous types of anthropogenic activities aimed at exploiting various resources (living, non-living, spatial) and involving different types of coastal and offshore development, from constructing marinas and terminals to shore protection structures to pipe deployment to gravel and sand digging to oil drilling to offshore windmill farm construction, to list just a few. The impacts of these forms of interference into the marine environment should be assessed and, if possible, predictive capacities should be built in order to ensure that the developments remain at a level ensuring sustainability of the Baltic. Contributions are welcome that will deal with exploring the impacts of various developments and with assessing their effects on the Baltic communities and habitats. |
Session title: |
Changes in marine communities in the Baltic and their external and internal drivers |
Conveners: |
Johanna Mattila, Hendrik Schubert and Hans Kautsky |
Description: |
Structural and functional attributes of marine biological communities undergo changes observable at different scales in time and space. Recognition of changes and possible patterns therein as well as searching for their proximate and ultimate causes are frequently a challenge for scientists, policy makers and planners alike. Identifying the triggers and the critical feedbacks that amplify or attenuate changes on a range of temporal and spatial scales will serve to hopefully broaden our ability to predict and mitigate future changes. Contributions addressing symptoms, histories, and driving forces of perceived changes in the Baltic biological communities are invited. |
Session title: |
Ecological effects of alien species |
Conveners: |
Jorma Kuparinen, Urszula Janas and Sergej Olenin |
Description: |
Biological invasions are a fact of life in the Baltic. Numerous alien species have already been identified, and the list of non-indigenous newcomers broadens every year. And yet, the effects those new additions to the Baltic ecosystem exert on the existing communities and habitats have not been fully explored; similarly, mechanisms of invasions and colonisation as well as invaders' traits that ensure their success deserve scrutiny. We encourage contributions that present new findings and insights into those problems. |
Session title: |
Intraspecific stress sensitivity versus salinity gradient |
Conveners: |
Lena Kautsky, Kerstin Johannesson and Martin Wahl |
Description: |
Salinity gradient is a characteristic of the Baltic ecosystem that requires activation of appropriate adaptive mechanisms within a species. This session is aimed at exploring if coping with the salinity gradient changes stress sensitivity within a species, and if so, what possible mechanisms (e.g., reduced genetic diversity) are involved. |
Session title: |
Ecosystem health |
Conveners: |
Pauline Snoeijs, Kari Lehtonen and Markku Viitasalo |
Description: |
Marine ecosystem health is a comprehensive and integrated approach, which reflects the health of the living and non-living components of the marine world. It expands the traditional definitions of health, and recognises the critical links between human activity, ecological change, and health. Transdisciplinary by nature, marine ecosystem health brings together the natural, social and health sciences and incorporates ecological, social, and economic perspectives with human health. Around the globe, the effects of marine ecosystem decline are evident. Increasingly, seas are experiencing dramatic changes in the quality of their environments, resulting ultimately in significant impacts on human health and well being. Many of these changes are the result of human activities or influences, which are proving to have profound impacts on all living things. The integrative concept and framework of marine ecosystem health provides the approach needed to more effectively manage marine ecosystems in order to ensure a healthy and sustainable future. We invite contributions that address the issues related to those broad concepts in the Baltic Sea context. |
Session title: |
Interplay of wave dynamics, marine ecosystem and coastal processes |
Conveners: |
Tarmo Soomere and Ira Didenkulova |
Description: |
Wave fields of different nature are the major drivers of open sea, nearshore and coastal processes as key elements of rapid energy and momentum redistribution over large distances. In semi-enclosed sea areas, the wave climate is one of the most sensitive indicators of the changes of the local (wind) climate. The session focuses on the physics of waves and accompanying processes occurring at and affecting the status, properties, and functioning of the air-sea interface (including ice dynamics), various wave-induced processes such as mixing or water-sediment interaction, and wave-induced coastal hazards (wave runup, storm surge, coastal erosion). Its scope includes (but is not limited to) the analysis and modelling of waves of different kind (wind waves, ship waves, internal waves, surge waves), wave forecast, wave climate studies, freak waves, and water level problems. Particularly welcome are cross-discipline contributions targeted to understanding the interdependence of wave mechanics, ecosystem dynamics, and coastal processes. |
Session title: |
The Baltic Basin through the Last Glacial Cycle |
Conveners: |
Thomas Andren, Svante Björck and Jan Harff |
Description: |
The Baltic Sea Basin hosts by its sediments high resolution paleoenvironmental records of the Last Glacial Cycle (LGC). Sediment cores from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene have been investigated intensively during the last decades. The extension of the investigation to the whole LGC would increase our knowledge on the climate dynamics of the northern hemisphere with special respect to the transition from glacial to interglacial periods and vice versa and periodicities in Fennoscandian Ice Sheet dynamics and its possible feedback to the Atlantic circulation system. Within the frame of further preparation of a special Baltic drilling and investigation program for sediments of the LGC in the session shall bring together geologist, paleoclimatologists and paleoceanographers. Participants will exchange and share the current knowledge in order to specify the interpretation of site surveys, and research concepts. |
Session title: |
Biogeochemical element transformations and fluxes in Holocene Baltic Sea sediments |
Conveners: |
Maren Voss, Stefan Forster and Michael E. Böttcher |
Description: |
Biogeochemical transformation processes in modern sediments control the fluxes of number of elements across the sediment-water interface and influence the productivity in the Baltic Sea. The deeps are characterized by long-lasting periods of stagnation with intermediate deep water renewal at irregular intervals. Therefore, the Baltic Sea offers the possibility of investigating biogeochemical processes under oxic and anoxic conditions. Biogeochemical processes in surface sediments are controlled by sedimentological conditions and the specific activity of the microbial community structure. These reactions are responsible for the mineralization of organic matter and authogenic mineral formations. These reactions establish physicochemical gradients that cause significant element fluxes across the sediment-water interface. Depending on the availability and quality of electron acceptors and donors types the specific combination and rates of biogeochemical processes may change in time and space along the various gradients. |
Session title: |
Role of groundwater on the Baltic Sea coastal ecosystems |
Conveners: |
Maria Schafmeister, Michael E. Böttcher and Michael Schlüter |
Description: |
The Baltic being an important marginal sea with significant fresh water input from the surrounding land masses is increasingly investigated with respect to bio-geochemical processes. These processes affect the biotic and abiotic environment. So far the fresh water input from the large rivers has been considered. However, groundwater input as submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) has been observed. Recent and ongoing studies investigate the quantity and quality of groundwater inflow with respect to geology and land use of the surrounding catchments. The infiltration of groundwater into the coastal waters of the Baltic Sea may play an important role for input of nutrients, greenhouse gases, and other biogeochemically relevant or toxic elements. This factor has not yet been considered and investigated in detail in the Baltic Sea area and may lead to new balances in terms of the importance of element concentrations and characteristic components introduced into the coastal zone. In a regions mainly at the eastern US coast and the Mediterranean the important role of ground waters has already been demonstrated in a number of recent studies. The combination of different methodological (biogeochemical, isotope, hydrogeological) approaches will result in new conclusions about the relative importance of ground and river water inputs on the budgets and transfromations of nutrients and other anthropogenic and geogenic compounds in the coastal eco systems of the Baltic Sea. |
Session title: |
General geology of the Baltic basin |
Conveners: |
Igor Tuuling and Alvar Soesoo |
Description: |
Researchers and doctoral students are welcome to present their results of resent studies. The fields to be discussed: A) Precambrian and Phanerozoic geology. B) Geomorphology, history of crustal movements as well as past and recent erosion and sedimentation dynamics in the pre-Late Cenozoic Baltic sea basin and its surroundings. C) Georesources of the seabed and their survey and utilization. Engineering conditions and prospects concerning the seashore zone and seabed; and related environmental issues. |
Session title: |
Binding Ecosystem and Society |
Conveners: |
Kaisa Kononen, Andris Andrushaitis and Sakari Kuikka |
Description: |
Although the Baltic Sea is one of the best studied areas of the World Ocean, the gap between the scientific knowledge and policy-making to protect the environment and use the marine goods and services in a sustainable manner remains wide open. BONUS Joint Baltic Sea Research Programme has set “Integrating Ecosystem and Society” as one of its 7 main research modules. The socio-economic analysis has to translate the natural science language into the policy-making language, supporting economy and peoples’ well-being. HELCOM has already commissioned within the Baltic Sea Action Plan a study about the true costs of the Baltic Sea eutrophication. BONUS ERA-NET arranged recently a Baltic-US seminar to collect a broader global experience on the socio-economic mattes related to the marine environment. Several research projects funded by the BONUS+ Programme are supporting socio-economic investigations, and several research institutions from around the Baltic recently announced a major joint initiative called “Baltic Stern Project”. Thus, the knowledge generated on the border between natural and social science is in high demand and these studies have a potential to become one of the fastest developing research areas in the region. The session, sponsored by the BONUS+ Programme, invites researchers to share their experience in this challenging but yet very promising area. |
Workshop: |
Foresight studies into global dynamics and policies |
Conveners: |
Steven Bishop and Tarmo Soomere |
Description: |
Society currently faces a set of new challenges that are both global in scale and highly dynamic. Some of the most critical are: climate change, energy, security and the spread of new diseases such as HIV and the continued devastating effects of old diseases, such as malaria. They involve resources and impacts which no single in society controls, but which affect all people worldwide. There is an obvious need to create a new set of links between scientists and stakeholders to develop new simulation and visualisation methods to analyse these issues and to seek new ways in which science can support policy and decision making. The workshop will bring together the scientists specialising in the analysis of these global challenges and experts in the application of new and emerging technologies for the analysis of complex, dynamic systems. We focus on exploration of new mechanisms and applications of modern simulation tools for rapid analysis of complex dynamic systems, including the analysis of very large, dispersed data sets. |
Workshop: |
Remote sensing and water optics specifically for Baltic Sea conditions |
Conveners: |
Anu Reinart, Susanne Kratzer and Tiit Kutser |
Description: |
Researcher and doctoral students are welcome to present their latest results about application of remote sensing method to improve monitoring of the Baltic Sea. Especial attention will be on atmospheric correction problems which are caused by high surface scattering during cyanobacterial bloom, low signal in blue region of spectra caused by high absorption in dissolved organic matter or specific properties of aerosol over Baltic Sea. For better development of further GMES services examples about integration of in situ and satellite data are also in priority. Complementary training course for PhD students about atmospheric correction will be organised. Workshop will be organised by Fp7 project EstSpacE. Participation in optical workshop is free. Travel support for PhD students is possible via Norforsk project NordAquaRem. Please send e-mail for request: estspace@estspace.ee. |
