Baltic Sea
case studies
The Baltic Sea:
People, sea and space
VECTORS Fact sheet series
Vectors of change in European Marine
Ecosystems and their Environmental
and Socio-Economic Impacts
The VECTORS project seeks to develop
integrated, multidisciplinary research - based
understanding of changes taking place in our
marine environment, the mechanisms for
them and the ecological impacts expected
from them. VECTORS will examine how
these changes may affect the range of goods
and services provided by the oceans, the
ensuing socio - economic impacts and some
of the measures that could be developed to
reduce or adapt to these changes.
The Baltic Sea has a high density of different uses. One of the main uses is
shipping which is of major concern for the environment and management
of the sea. There are around 2,000 ships in the sea at any time and the
number of ships entering or leaving the Baltic via the Skaw, the westernmost
point of the sea, has increased by 20% since 2006. This high density of
shipping traffic means that 120 – 140 shipping accidents occur in the Baltic
every year.
Regional Seas Case Studies
VECTORS studies three regional seas, the
North Sea, Baltic and Western Mediterranean,
as research areas for investigating the impacts
of human activities and how multiple pressures
can have combined and interacting effects
for the marine environment, society and
economy. Within each of the regional seas
several case studies are taking place to allow
more targeted investigation of the causes
and impacts of these pressures in particular
environments. This series of fact sheets
provides an overview of each case study and
the varying scientific approaches used.
Humans interact with the Baltic Sea in many ways.
VECTORS is addressing the various spatial claims of humans in the Baltic
Sea, including their impact on and interaction with the marine environment.
In particular VECTORS scientists are examining:
long term changes in fish distribution and impacts on spatially specific
food web functioning
how human pressures influence aspects of ecosystem status, e.g.
impacts of windmills on oxygen conditions or on the occurrence and
distribution of jellyfish. ecosystem regime shifts. »»
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The knowledge gained from this research is used for complex modelling
approaches including:
3D-ecosystem modelling
stochastic multi-species modelling
spatial fisheries modelling.
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Within these models and semi-quantitative analyses of ecosystem services,
the influence of selected human activities and policies such as transport,
energy production, fisheries or tourism are considered. The results together
with knowledge gained from Baltic studies on legal frameworks and
governance elements are being used to formulate recommendations for
spatial marine management.
Baltic Sea case studies
Drivers of change in the Baltic Sea include
eutrophication, fishing, pollution, shipping
and renewable energy generation.
These activities can result in changes
in species distribution, impacts on
biodiversity and ecosystem function and a
decrease in fishing revenue, resources and
tourism.
Tourism is important in many parts of the Baltic.
Contact
Project coordinator: Mel Austen
Project manager: Jenny Lockett
VECTORS Project Office
VECTORS
V1: Feb 2013
Coordinated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory
[email protected], www.marine-vectors.eu
Why
The Baltic Sea has always been used by humans. However, being a semi-enclosed sea with limited water exchange it
is highly vulnerable to various impacts of anthropogenic activities. Today, the Baltic Sea is heavily used with the main
pressures that are competing for space originating from fisheries, energy and coastal tourism.
Where
The Baltic Sea is characterised by many gradients. To gain understanding of the most important processes in this
heterogenic sea VECTORS is focusing on selected case studies. Due to its wide distribution, fisheries are being studied
on a pan-Baltic level, with special focus on the south-western Baltic Sea. This area is also the hotspot for the development
of offshore renewable energies (wind farms). Ecosystem services, in turn, can be studied best on a small scale. Hence,
these studies are focused on the Bay of Puck where VECTORS aims for an improvement of existing methods to assess
ecosystem services. Analyses of ecosystem regime shifts are focused on the Gulf of Riga, where many long time series
of data are available.
How
Generation of energy will become an increasing pressure in the Baltic Sea due to the planned enlargement of
offshore wind farms. These new wind farms will provide additional hard substrate which will be colonised by several
species. VECTORS will assess the ecological impacts of these colonisation processes, e.g. on oxygen conditions or on
the occurrence and distribution of jellyfish.
The spatial diversity in natural conditions and human pressures on the Baltic environment cause changes in species
distribution and sub-regional variations in productivity, which are among the key interest areas for VECTORS. For
example, the current distribution of major fish stocks implies a limited overlap between predator (cod) and prey (sprat
and herring), resulting in poor condition and quality of cod. Thus, changes in ecosystem structure and functioning can
take place at a sub-regional level, which calls for region-specific assessments of ecosystem dynamics, where VECTORS
collaborates with ICES/HELCOM to assess long-term changes in selected coastal areas.
Food provision, e.g. by fish, is one example of an ecosystem service. A more holistic
analysis of the full suite of services provided by a marine ecosystem is being conducted
in Puck Bay, Poland. By concentrating on one case study site the full range of ecosystem
services provided for humans can be categorised and quantified. VECTORS will then
evaluate the effects of environmental changes on the delivery of these ecosystem
services on human wellbeing. This will give us further understanding of the tradeoffs between services achieved through different scenarios of management of human
activities that affect the marine environment.
Distribution of pressures as well as of species is a key theme in VECTORS. Therefore
the application, improvement and coupling of spatial models (3D ecosystem, stochastic
multi-species and fishing effort models) play a strong role. But Baltic case studies are
also strong in research on management approaches, stakeholder participation, legal
frameworks and their implementation.
Some cod are in poor condition due to a limited overlap in
distribution with their prey (Photograph: Bastian Huwer).
The future
VECTORS will help to gain an improved understanding on how people perceive ecosystem
changes and of what is considered to be important by societies. Generic outcomes from
Baltic case studies will contribute to improvements of scientific and applied methods to
evaluate different marine and maritime policy options.
What will be in tomorrow’s nets?
VECTORS
VECTORS is a European project (26455) supported within
Themes 2, 5, 6 and 7 of the European Commission
Seventh Framework Programme
Author
The author of this fact sheet is Holger Janßen,
Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Germany.
E-mail: [email protected]