Load of organic matter to the Baltic Sea has been identified as the second greatest environmental pressure both in the Bothnian Bay and in the Gulf of Finland by the HELCOM Holistic Assessment. The project develops a fully integrated assessment of effects of dissolved organic matter (DOM ) loads in a number of river systems and in the northern Baltic Sea ecosystem and specifically River Vantaa.
The approach includes assessment of the drivers and pressures in the catchment areas, a detailed evaluation of effects by organic inputs on the various ecosystem levels, and a formal analysis of the use of controlling instruments. We apply hierarchical Bayesian models in describing the water quality in rivers providing DOM input to the Gulf of Bothnia, and probabilistic models to evaluate the possible changes in the Gulf of Bothnia ecosystem.
As the project is multidisciplinary, outputs of the other two activities will be utilized to achieve integration of the analyses. In particular, the activity lead by MTT (Agrifood Research Finland) has key importance as that sub-task focuses on the dynamics of DOM loading from soil, and on the economy of DOM loading and mitigation of environmental effects.
Baltic Sea water after concentration. DOM = brown colour. Picture: Tuula Närhinen
More information
Adjunct professor Harri Kuosa, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, firstname.surname@ymparisto.fi