| Title | Historical environmental measurements reveal drastic decrease on Baltic Sea keystone species |
| Download | Download (whole publication) |
| |
| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Sahla, M; Kurvinen, L; Ruuskanen, A |
| Source | Program and abstracts: 2017 GeoHab Conference, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada; by Todd, B J ; Brown, C J; Lacharité, M; Gazzola, V; McCormack, E; Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8295, 2017 p. 103, https://doi.org/10.4095/305922  Open Access |
| Links | GeoHab 2017
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| Year | 2017 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Meeting | 2017 GeoHab: Marine Geological and Biological Habitat Mapping; Dartmouth, NS; CA; May 1-4, 2017 |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| Related | This publication is contained in Program and abstracts: 2017
GeoHab Conference, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| File format | pdf |
| Area | Baltic Sea |
| Lat/Long WENS | 10.0000 30.5000 66.0000 53.7500 |
| Subjects | marine geology; surficial geology/geomorphology; environmental geology; Nature and Environment; mapping techniques; oceanography; marine environments; coastal studies; conservation; marine organisms;
marine ecology; resource management; biological communities; environmental studies; ecosystems; biotopes; benthos; algae; suspended sediments; sedimentation rates; modelling; water quality; salinity; turbidity; sea level changes; Fucus; Biology;
Methodology; Plants |
| Illustrations | sketch maps |
| Program | Offshore Geoscience |
| Released | 2017 09 26 |
| Abstract | Human activities have been drastically reshaping the distribution of Baltic marine biotopes during the past 100 years. The Baltic Sea is especially vulnerable to human pressures due to its limited water
exchange. A large variety of human activities occur in the marine areas. However some of the most notable pressures, such as eutrophication and increased sedimentation, can be traced to activities happening in the surrounding drainage areas.
Eutrophication increases the amount of algal material in the water column, which together with suspended sediments can reduce the light penetration significantly. Light availability is crucial for benthic plants and therefor declining light
penetration will result in deep areas becoming unsuitable for plant growth.
In this study we have combined new habitat modeling techniques and historical water quality data to show how changes in light availability have affected to the extent of
favorable areas for bladderwrack (Fucus spp.), which is one of the most important keystone species in the northern Baltic Sea. This study is as far as we know the first attempt to quantify large scale change of favorable areas for bladderwrack using
spatial analysis. We have found that decreased light availability at the seafloor has reduced suitable areas for Fucus spp. in Finnish coastal waters up to 60% during past 100 years. Similar trend has been found when examining long term surveillance
data on maximum depth limits on Fucus spp. occurrence during the past decades.
We have been able to successfully map areas where large scale habitat degradation has been taking place. The results are being used in the assessment of Finnish Red
List of Ecosystems and the methodology is applied for other biotopes as well. The resulting data can also be used when making conservation and restoration plans for marine areas. The importance of these findings lies in future planning. We know now
what kind of status can again be achieved if sufficient protection measures are taken into action. We can also use this methodology to project future scenarios for habitat distribution with changes in salinity, nutrients, turbidity or even sea level
rise. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The sixteenth annual GeoHab Conference was held this year (2017) at the Waterfront Campus of the Nova Scotia Community College in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia,
Canada. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 305922 |
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