Baltic Earth Scientific Colloquium Series

Past trends in the water balance of the Baltic Sea

Monday 4 December 2023, (15:00 Stockholm time)

Markus Meier

The calculation of the freshwater balance of the Baltic Sea and its temporal variability is a long-standing field of research within BALTEX and Baltic Earth. The difference between precipitation and evaporation over the Baltic Sea catchment area controls, via the rivers, the freshwater input into the Baltic Sea and thus its salinity. However, the salt input via the Danish straits is also variable over time. In this presentation, I will discuss the latest research on low-frequency variability of the water balance of the region and of Baltic Sea salinity.

Markus is leading the Working Area "Dynamics of Regional Climate Systems" at Leibniz-Institute of Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Germany

Philosophical views on Baltic Basin climate and environmental sciences

Monday 5 February 2024, (15:00 Stockholm time)

Anders Omstedt

We have investigated the scientific practice during the BALTEX/Baltic Earth research period from 1993 to 2023. The study applies a philosophical view of complex systems, which promotes an increased understanding through idealizations without organizing science into hierarchies. Instead, the pluralistic science approach used by the BALTEX/Baltic Earth program has successfully generated new knowledge about how to deal with climate and environmental changes in the region. Some of the major improvements in science understanding are:
• Improved communication skills through developing conceptual views into drawings with large information contents
• Improved experience in increasing data and data products and realizing the need for well-documented, homogenized, and open data sets. Also, training in how to characterize and detect climate and environmental changes in the region.
• Indices and statistical models have played an important role in understanding complex dynamics. We have learned that they also need consideration of homogeneities and often have severe limitations.
• Several new maps on the region have, in an easy visual way, opened up the understanding of the need for multi-disciplinary research, from geographic to human information.
• Improved knowledge has been built due to intensive research on the atmosphere-ocean boundary layers.
• New knowledge has been achieved through water, heat, nutrients, and carbon budgets.
• Improved knowledge of mechanistic and system models regarding water, heat, nutrients, and carbon cycling.
• Maximum complex models have been strongly developed as the computer capacity has grown and shown important results when attributing the causes for climate change and scenarios of possible future developments.
• Experience from assessment has taught us about the strengths and problems when evaluating science. It also improved our knowledge about multiple-discipline research.

Anders is Prof. emeritus at University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Managing marine resources sustainably – ecological, societal and governance connectivity, coherence and equivalence in complex marine transboundary regions

Monday 8 April 2024, (15:00 Stockholm time)

Mike Elliott

Michael Elliott^1,2, Ángel Borja³ and Roland Cormier<sup>4

1</sup> International Estuarine & Coastal Specialists (IECS) Ltd, Leven HU17 5LQ, United Kingdom Mike.Elliott@hull.ac.uk
² School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, United Kingdom
³ AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Herrera Kaia, Portualdea z/g, 20110 Pasaia, Spain; aborja@azti.es
⁴ National Centre for Effectiveness Science, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 343 Université Avenue, Moncton, NB E1C 5K4 Canada; Roland.Cormier@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

This overview proposes a novel typology of characteristics required to ensure that marine assessment and management is connected, coherent and/or equivalent across boundaries, both within or between national and international jurisdictions. This defines the types of connectivity, coherence nature and equivalences with their relevance and examples in a marine transboundary context. It indicates the way of identifying impediments to be addressed to ensure that the management across marine boundaries is sustainable and adequate, and it also gives examples of the way of overcoming those barriers. The typology covers natural environmental, governance (policies, politics, administration and legislation), economic and management regimes. It encompasses sector (e.g. fishing, navigation, etc.,) and their activity-, pressures-, effects- and management response-footprints and Maritime Spatial Planning and Marine Protected Area-designation. This links monitoring, assessment and reporting across boundaries and within the physico-chemical and ecological realms and in marine conservation across boundaries. Finally, it shows connectivity, coherence and equivalence should reflect wider societal and cultural aspects as well as governance approaches, principles and outcomes in adjacent countries (States) and regions. These aspects are summarised by analysing the so-called 10-tenets for sustainable and successful marine management. Although this typology is developed largely from a European and North America perspective, it is proposed here for validating with examples in other areas worldwide.

Mike is Professor of Estuarine and Coastal Sciences at the University of Hull, a marine biologist with wide interests in marine and estuarine ecology, human impacts, marine and estuarine management and policy. We are looking forward to an inspiring presentation!

From understanding changes in surface winds to quantifying their impacts

Monday 3 June 2024, (15:00 Stockholm time)

Lorenzo Minola

Not only temperature and precipitation patterns have displayed changes under the ongoing climate warming, but also near-surface winds have changed driven by a combination of anthropogenic activities and climate changes. In this talk it will be shown how near-surface winds variabilities have been investigated (with focus on Sweden) and what those changes imply when it comes to, for example, coastal vulnerability or dispersion and accumulation of air pollutants in cities.

Lorenzo is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Gothenburg

Open topic

Monday 7 October 2024, (15:00 Stockholm time)

Presentation by Matthias Gröger, Leibniz Institute of Baltic Sea research

Monday 2 December 2024, (15:00 Stockholm time)

Title and abstracts to follow...