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State and Evolution of the Baltic Sea, 1952-2005 presents an extended summary of the reports from the Baltic Sea Research Institute. These compose an interdisciplinary and comprehensive description of the development of the Baltic Sea during the last 50 years, based on long-term observational data. The chapters reflect the most important features from meteorology and climate to physics and chemistry to plankton and fish, written by well-known experts of their fields. Although the focus is on the work and the data of the Baltic Sea Research Institute, other international authors have agreed to participate, contributing essential features from outside the institute's actual scope.
Concise table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. General oceanography of the Baltic Sea
3. The history of long-term observations in Warnemünde
4. Weather of the Baltic Sea
5. Baltic climate change
6. Current Observations in the western Baltic Sea
7. Sea state and tides
8. Ice
9. Satellite-derived Sea Surface Temperature for the period 1990 - 2005
10. The inflow of highly saline water into the Baltic Sea
11. BALTIC: Monthly time series 1900 - 2005
12. Nutrient concentrations, trends and their relation to eutrophication
13. Trace metals in Baltic Seawater
14. Sedimentary records of environmental changes and anthropogenic impacts during the past decades
15. Phytoplankton
16. Macrophytobenthos
17. Zoobenthos
18. Fish Stock Development under hydrographic and hydrochemical aspects, the history of Baltic Sea fisheries and its management
19. Description of the Baltic Sea with numerical models
20. Digital supplement
21. Summary and outlook
Detailed table of contents:
1. Introduction
2. General oceanography of the Baltic Sea
2.1.Specific natural conditions and their consequences
2.2.Estuarine circulation
2.2.1.Long term exchange
2.2.2.Short term barotropic exchange
2.2.3.Stratification and mixing in the channels
2.2.4.Quantifying the stochastic salt exchange associated with the barotropic water exchange
2.3.Wind driven currents
2.3.1.Ekman current and transport
2.3.2.Upwelling and coastal jets
2.4.Surface waves, tides, seiches, surges
2.4.1.Surface gravity waves
2.4.2.Seiches and wind stau
2.4.3.Tides
2.5.Kelvin waves, topographic waves and eddies
2.5.1.Kelvin waves
2.5.2.Coastal trapped waves and continental shelf waves
2.5.3.Eddies
2.6.Internal waves, turbulence, diapycnical mixing
2.6.1.Introduction
2.6.2.Vertical mixing in the interior
2.7.References
3. The history of long-term observations in Warnemünde
3.1.Introduction
3.2.Ship-borne measurements at fixed stations
3.2.1.Basic oceanographic instrumentation for ship-borne measurements
3.2.2.Oceanographic observations in the 1950s and 1960s
3.2.3.International cooperation 1969-2005
3.2.4.Activities in the frame of BMP, 1979-2005
3.3.Buoy stations and measuring platforms
3.3.1.The first buoy stations
3.3.2.MARNET stations
3.3.3.Current meter stations in the central Baltic Sea
3.4.Parameters measured
3.5.Data quality
3.6.Reference
4. Weather of the Baltic Sea
4.1.Introduction
4.2.Extreme weather conditions
4.2.1.Hurricanes, gales
4.2.2.Storm surges
4.3.Special weather situations
4.3.1.Baltic cyclones
4.3.2.Land and sea breeze
4.3.3.Warnemnder wind
4.3.4.General Vb- and Omega-weather types
4.4.Greenhouse effect
4.5.Acknowledgment
4.6.References
5. Baltic climate change
5.1.Introduction
5.2.Seasonal cycles
5.3.Climatic trends
5.4.Climatic variability
5.4.1.Year-to-year fluctuations
5.4.2.Decadal scale changes
5.4.3.Possible trigger mechanisms
5.5.Conclusions and outlook
5.6.References
6. Current Observations in the western Baltic Sea
6.1.Introduction
6.2.Great Belt and Fehmarnbelt
6.2.1.Great Belt
6.2.2.Fehmarnbelt
6.3.Arkona Sea West and Drogden Sill
6.3.1.Darss Sill
6.3.2.Drogden Sill
6.3.3.From Kriegers Flak to Hiddensee
6.4.Around Rgen
6.4.1.West off Hiddensee
6.4.2.Wittow
6.4.3.Kap Arkona
6.4.4.Tromper Wiek
6.4.5.From Landtief A to Jan Heweliusz
6.4.6.Oderbank
6.5.Conclusions
6.6.Acknowledgement
6.7.References
7. Sea state and tides
7.1.Sea state
7.1.1.History of observation and research
7.1.2.Observation and measurement
7.1.3.Sea state characteristics and wave generating factors
7.1.3.1.Wind sea characteristics
7.1.3.2.Wave height frequency distribution
7.1.3.3.Wave spectra
7.1.3.4.Wave generating and wave modifying factors (wind, fetch, wind duration, water depth)
7.1.3.5.Special phenomena (air-sea temperature, currents, crossing seas)
7.1.4.Calculation and forecast of the sea state
7.1.4.1.Empirical wave parameter calculation
7.1.4.2.Empirical wave spectra
7.1.4.3.Numerical models
7.1.5.Wave climatology
7.1.5.1.Open sea wave climate
7.1.5.2.Wave climate of the coastal zone
7.1.6.Extreme wave conditions
7.2.Tides
7.2.1.History of tidal research in the Baltic Sea
7.2.2.Theory of tides in the Baltic Sea and a proper model concept
7.2.3.Modelling of co-oscillating and direct tides
7.3.References
8. Ice
8.1.Introduction
8.2.The Baltic Sea and winter time maritime transportation
8.3.Frequency of ice occurrence in the Baltic Sea as well as mean and extreme ice parameters from representative stations in the period 1956 - 2005
8.4.Ice conditions in the Baltic Sea and adjacent waters in 1956 - 2005
8.4.1.Transition area between the North Sea and Baltic Sea
8.4.2.Western Baltic
8.4.3.Southern Baltic
8.4.4.Northern Baltic
8.4.5.Gulf of Riga
8.4.6.Gulf of Finland
8.4.7.Gulf of Bothnia
8.5.Classification of ice winters
8.5.1.Maximum extent of ice cover in the Baltic Sea 1720 - 2005
8.5.2.Ice winter severity indicator - Swedish coast
8.5.3.Ice winter severity indicator for the Southern Baltic Sea
8.5.4.Accumulated areal ice volume for the Western Baltic Sea
8.5.5.Changes of sea ice conditions in the Western Baltic from 1300 to present
8.6.References
9. Satellite-derived Sea Surface Temperature for the period 1990 - 2005
9.1.Introduction
9.2.Methodology
9.3.Seasonal, regional, and inter-annual variations of SST in the Baltic Sea
9.4.Trends in the development of SST
9.5.Relation to climate indices
9.6.Regional particularities in SST-Patterns
9.6.1.Upwelling and other dynamical features in the Baltic Sea
9.6.2.Oder river discharge and Oder flood
9.6.3.Coastal wind-driven processes along the German Baltic Sea coast
9.7.Summary and conclusions
9.8.Acknowledgment
9.9.References
10. The inflow of highly saline water into the Baltic Sea
10.1.Introduction
10.2.The causes of MBIs and their basic impact on the Baltic Sea
10.3.The statistical analysis of major Baltic inflows
10.4.The analysis of selected events
10.4.1.MBIs in the 1950s and 1960s
10.4.2.The 1970s
10.4.3.The very strong MBI in January 1993
10.4.4.The warm water MBI in autumn 1997
10.4.5.The specific MBI in January 2003
10.5.The analysis of baroclinic summer inflows
10.6.The effects of MBIs and baroclinic summer inflows in the central Baltic deep water
10.6.1.The effects on the hydrographic parameters temperature, salinity and oxygen concentration
10.6.2.The effects on inorganic nutrients
10.7.References
11. BALTIC: Monthly time series 1900 - 2005
11.1.Introduction
11.2.Data material
11.3.Quality control and uncertainties
11.3.1.IOW data
11.3.2.SMHI data
11.3.3.NERI data
11.3.4.IMGW data
11.3.5.Additional data
11.4.Monthly time series 1900 - 2005
11.5.References
12. Nutrient concentrations, trends and their relation to eutrophication
12.1.Introduction
12.2.Nutrient inputs
12.3.Annual inorganic nutrient cycles and long term nutrient trends in the surface layer
12.4.Inorganic nutrient reservoirs in the deep basins
12.5.Organic nutrients
12.6.Conclusions
12.7.References
13. Trace metals in Baltic Seawater
13.1.The state of knowledge until 1993
13.2.Trace metal trends in the western and central Baltic Sea between saltwater inflow events in 1993 and 2003
13.3.The influence of major saltwater inflow events and stagnant anoxic deepwater conditions on trace metal trends in the Gotland Deep
13.3.1.Pb, Cd, Cu, and Zn trends "Above and Below Halocline"
13.3.2.Quantification of trace metal fluxes across the redox interface caused by vertical turbulent mixing.
13.3.3.The relation between external and internal fluxes
13.4.Seasonal particulate trace metal fluxes across the halocline in the water column of the Eastern Gotland Basin
13.5.Flux and budget estimations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in the surface water of the central Baltic Sea
13.6.Outlook
13.7.Acknowledgment
13.8.References
14. Sedimentary records of environmental changes and anthropogenic impacts during the past decades
14.1.Changing coastlines of the Baltic Sea
14.1.1.Introduction
14.1.2.The geological/tectonic setting of the Baltic area
14.1.3.Relative sea level change
14.1.4.Palaeogeography - coastline change
14.1.5.Summary
14.1.6.Acknowledgement
14.2.Recent sedimentation in the eastern Gotland Basin: spatial patterns, rates, and drivers
14.2.1.Introduction
14.2.2.Spatial distribution of sedimentation rates
14.2.3.Element accumulation rates
14.2.4.Vertical versus horizontal fluxes of biogenic elements
14.2.5.Summary
14.3.Reconstruction of pollution history in sediment cores from different Baltic Sea basins
14.3.1.Introduction and background
14.3.2.Field work and laboratory methods
14.3.3.Sediment properties and age models
14.3.4.Heavy metals and organic pollutants in the sediment cores
14.3.5.Inventories of pollutants
14.3.6.Summary
14.3.7.Acknowledgements
14.4.Repeated geochemical mapping of the Arkona Basin after 17 years (1988 and 2005)
14.4.1.Introduction
14.4.2.Methodology
14.4.3.Results
14.4.4.General sedimentology, hydro- and sediment dynamics
14.4.5.Redox dependent processes
14.4.6.Fe-Mn micro-concretions
14.4.7.Pollution (heavy metals)
14.4.8.Conclusions and outlook
14.4.9.Summary
14.4.10.Acknowledgements
14.5.References
15. Phytoplankton
15.1.History of phytoplankton research and methodology in the Baltic Sea
15.1.1.Quantitative phytoplankton analysis
15.1.2.Chlorophyll
15.1.3.Primary production and nitrogen fixation
15.1.4.Satellite imagery
15.2.Factors influencing phytoplankton
15.3.Spatial distribution
15.3.1.Phytoplankton composition and biomass
15.3.2.Chlorophyll
15.3.3.Primary production and nitrogen fixation
15.4.Seasonal pattern
15.4.1.Phytoplankton succession and blooms
15.4.2.Chlorophyll
15.4.3.Primary production and nitrogen fixation
15.5.Long-term trends
15.5.1.Phytoplankton composition and biomass
15.5.2.Chlorophyll
15.5.3.Primary production and nitrogen fixation
15.6.Relationship between the different phytoplankton parameters
15.7.Acknowledgement
15.8.References
16. Macrophytobenthos
16.1.Preview
16.2.Species inventory
16.2.1.Data available
16.2.2.Definition of the term "macrophytobenthos"
16.2.3.Taxonomic problems
16.2.4.Species disappeared from the Baltic Sea
16.2.5.Species invading the Baltic Sea
16.3.Developments in the Baltic Sea by regions
16.3.1.Western Baltic - Kattegat, Belt Sea and the southern coast
16.3.2.Eastern Baltic proper coast and Gulf of Riga
16.3.3.Western Baltic Proper coast and Archipelago / Aland Sea
16.3.4.Gulf of Finland and Neva bay
16.3.5.Bothnian Sea and Bay
16.4.Summary
17. Zoobenthos
17.1.Introduction
17.2.How diverse is the macrozoobenthos in the southern Baltic Sea? Analysis of historical and more recent (IOW) data
17.2.1.History of macrozoobenthic research in the southern Baltic Sea
17.2.2.Investigation area
17.2.3.Literature sources
17.2.4.IOW data
17.2.5.Taxonomy
17.2.6.Data base
17.2.7.Macrozoobenthic diversity in the southern Baltic
17.3.Macrozoobenthos patterns and dynamic in the Southern Baltic at selected monitoring stations during the last 15 years
17.3.1.Spatial distribution of macrozoobenthic species
17.3.2.Temporal changes in the macrozoobenthos distribution in the southern Baltic
17.4.References
18. Fish Stock Development under hydrographic and hydrochemical aspects, the history of Baltic Sea fisheries and its management
18.1.Introduction
18.2.The cod story
18.3.The flatfish story
18.4.Effects of climate- and fishery-induced changes on Baltic fish stocks, and ecosystem structure
18.5.Cod reproductive success and climate-hydrographic processes
18.6.Sprat and herring reproductive success and climate-hydrographic processes
18.7.Climate effects on growth
18.8.Climate effects on species interactions and ecosystem structure
18.9.The potential for a recovery of the Eastern Baltic cod stock and benefits from potentially re-established balanced ecosystem
18.10.Managing into and out of the clupeid trap - a case for conservation and Baltic ecosystem improvement
18.11.Influence of contaminants on Baltic fish and fisheries
18.12.Summary and perspective
18.13.References
19. Description of the Baltic Sea with numerical models
19.1.Introduction
19.2.A model system
19.2.1.Circulation models
19.2.2.Biogeochemical models
19.2.3.Model implementation
19.3.Applications of the model system
19.3.1.Simulation of circulation patterns in the transition area between Baltic and North Sea
19.3.2.River plumes
19.3.3.Pathways of salt transports into the Arkona Basin
19.3.4.Nutrient load experiments and oxygen dynamics
19.3.5.Transport of suspended particulate matter
19.3.6.Long-term simulations
19.4.Future challenges
19.4.1.Highly resolving models
19.4.2.Coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean models
19.4.3.Higher levels of the food web
19.4.4.Modelling across the disciplines
19.5.References
20. Digital supplement
20.1.Introduction
20.2.General data
20.2.1.Thermodynamic properties
20.2.2.Parameters: Codes, units and conversions
20.2.3.Reference data
20.2.4.Digital shorelines
20.2.5.Digital bottom topography
20.3.Observational data
20.3.1.Climatological data
20.3.2.Ice data
20.3.3.Sea level data
20.3.4.River discharge data
20.3.5.BALTIC atlas data
20.3.6.Inflow data
20.3.7.Irradiation data
20.3.8.Phytoplankton data
20.4.Figures of the book
20.5.Acknowledgment
20.6.References
21. Summary and outlook
Rainer Feistel, PhD, is a physicist and oceanographer at IOW inWarnemunde, Germany, and is the author of four previous books. Günther Nausch, PhD, is a senior marine chemist at IOW, where he works on nutrient cycles and long-term trend observations in the Baltic Sea. Norbert Wasmund, PhD, is a senior marine biologist at IOW, where he specializes in phytoplankton research and is responsible for biological monitoring.
