This book offers an up-to-date overview of the latest scientific findings in regional climate research on the Baltic Sea basin. This includes climate changes in the recent past, climate projections up until 2100 using the most sophisticated regional climate models available, and an assessment of climate change impacts on terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. The authors demonstrate that the regional climate has already started to change, and will continue to do so.
Recent developments have produced fundamental and far-reaching changes in the sovereignties bordering the semi-enclosed area of the Baltic Sea. This book presents a comprehensive and balanced codification of issues and views, focusing on new developments in the Baltic Sea Area with specific reference to the UNCLOS 1982 Convention, the particular marine uses of the Baltic Sea, and national views and interests of the bordering states and third parties. It deals with matters such as the Kiel Canal, delimitation, dispute settlement and navigation, shipping, the ecosystem, fisheries, and scientific research. The Baltic Sea is the outcome of a European Workshop on the Law of the Sea co-sponsored by the Law of the Sea Institute (University of Hawaii), the William S. Richardson School of Law (University of Hawaii) and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Research Institute for International Affairs) in Ebenhausen (Germany). This workshop is the first in a series designed to illuminate major issues in ocean law and policy which require attention on the national, regional, and global levels. This book provides a useful basis for the consideration and further discussion of those interested in the sea and the environment, helping academics and policy-makers alike not only ascertain but also understand objectives and concerns underlying the states of the region and the reaction of other states and the international community as a whole.
Based on a fifty-year study conducted by the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, this book brings together a comprehensive summary of their observations and findings. Written by well-known experts, this revealing book concentrates on long-term changes in the Baltic Sea?which can be extrapolated to shed light on the environmental problems of other shelf seas, brackish seas, and large estuaries?thereby contributing to our understanding of water exchange processes, eutrophication, and climatic impacts at the forefront of international concern.
During recent decades, large-scale effects of pollution on marine estuaries and even entire enclosed coastal seas have become apparent. One of the first regions where this was observed is the Baltic Sea, whereby the appearance of anoxic deep basins, extensive algal blooms and elimination of top predators like eagles and seals indicated effects of both increased nutrient inputs and toxic substances. This book describes the physical, biochemical and ecological processes that govern inputs, distribution and ecological effects of nutrients and toxic substances in the Baltic Sea. Extensive reviews are supplemented by budgets and dynamic simulation models. This book is highly interdisciplinary and uses a systems approach for analyzing and describing a marine ecosystem. It gives an overview of the Baltic Sea, but is useful for any marine scientist studying large marine ecosystems.
The Baltic Sea oceanographic research community is wide and the research history is over 100 years old. Nevertheless, there is still no single, coherent book on the physical oceanography of the Baltic Sea as a whole. There is a strong need for such a book, coming from working oceanographers as well as the university teaching programmes in advanced undergraduate to graduate levels. In the regional conference series in physical oceanography (Baltic Sea Science Conference, Baltic Sea Oceanographers' conference, Baltex-conferences) about 500 scientists take part regularly. Even more scientists work in the fields of marine biology, chemistry and the environment, and they need information on the physics of the Baltic Sea as well. There are nine countries bordering on the Baltic Sea and five more in the runoff area. The Baltic Sea as a source of fish, means of transportation and leisure activities is highly important to the regional society. In the runoff area there are a total of 85 million people. Research and protection strategies need to be developed, as the Baltic Sea is probably the most polluted sea in the world. Since the Baltic Sea has become an inner sea of the EU (apart from small shore parts of Russia in Petersburg and Kaliningrad), it is anticipated that the importance of the region will consequently rise. The book will arouse interest among students, scientists and decision makers involved with the Baltic problems. It will also give important background information for those working with biogeochemical processes in the Baltic Sea, because the physical forcing for those processes is of vital importance.
It presents a new approach to set fish quota based on holistic ecosystem modeling (the CoastWeb-model) and also a plan to optimize a sustainable management of the Baltic Sea including a cost-benefit analysis. This plan accounts for the production of prey and predatory fish under different environmental conditions, professional fishing, recreational fishing and fish cage farm production plus an analysis of associated economic values. Several scenarios and remedial strategies for Baltic Sea management are discussed and an "optimal" strategy motivated and presented, which challenges the HELCOM strategy that was accepted by the Baltic States in November 2007. The strategy advocated in this book would create more than 7000 new jobs, the total value of the fish production would be about 1600 million euro per year plus 1000 million euro per year related to the willingness-to-pay to combat the present conditions in the Baltic Sea. Our strategy would cost about 370 million euro whereas the HELCOM strategy would cost about 3100 million euro per year. The "optimal" strategy is based on a defined goal - that the water clarity in the Gulf of Finland should return to what it was 100 years ago.
