The river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) was previously caught in large numbers in Europe when migrating up in the rivers during autumn for spawning the next spring. It was used as food and was also used as bait in cod fishing in the North Sea. Today the river lamprey has decreased in numbers over much of it’s distribution range, but in the Baltic Sea area, the population is still at a fairly good level, and fishing for lampreys as food (a tradition going back to at least the fifteenth century) is still going on in northern Swedish and Finnish rivers, as well as in coastal rivers in the southern Baltic Sea area. In this article the current situation as regards river lamprey fishing in Sweden, Finland, Latvia and, to some extent, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland is presented.

Seawater and wastewater all around the world contain toxins and pollutants, not the least drug residues, including hormoneswhich disturb the ecosystems and antibiotics with growing multi-drug resistance of bacteria as a result. The effects onecosystems and mankind can be severe and with this general fact the need for proper analysis devices increases. This haspromoted further studies to establish devices for detection of analytes with high selectivity and high sensitivity. In this thesis Ipresent a unique device exploiting capture of antigen on antibody conjugated actin filaments and subsequent transportationof the antigen in Baltic Sea water using heavy meromyosin (HMM) motor fragments from muscle myosin. The model-antibody,anti-rIgG, used in the study, was covalently attached to the actin filaments, capturing a model-analyte, rIgG that was dissolvedin the Sea water. Furthermore, the effect of Baltic Sea water on HMM propelled actin filament transportation in the in vitromotility assay was studied. An effect was observed with Baltic Sea water, supplemented with standard adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) and oxygen scavenger systems, reducing the sliding velocity by approximately 80%. However the effect wasreversible which is of great advantage in relation to the development of a future biosensor device incorporating actomyosindriven transports. Additionally, evidence was found that the substance A slightly enhanced the function of the proteins whenstored on a motility assay surface at 4-8 °C for up to ten days, of value for practical applications of a potential biosensordevice. The results demonstrate the potential that antigen from sea water could be captured and transported by actomyosinto certain detector areas and eventually become concentrated which would increase the sensitivity of the device.

The global silicon (Si) cycle is of fundamental importance for the global carbon cycle. Diatom growth in the oceans is a major sequestration pathway for carbon on a global scale (often referred to as the biological pump). Patterns of diatoms preserved in marine sediment records can reveal both natural and anthropogenic driven environmental change, which can be used to understand silicon dynamics and climate change. Si isotopes have been shown to have great potential in order to understand the Si cycle by revealing both past and present patterns of dissolved Si (DSi) utilization, primarily when diatoms form their siliceous frustules (noted as biogenic silica, BSi). However, studies using Si isotopes are still scarce and only a few studies exist where stable Si isotopes are used to investigate the biogeochemical Si cycle in aquatic systems. Therefore, this thesis focuses on developing analytical methods for studying BSi and DSi and also provides tools to understand the observed Si isotope distribution, which may help to understand impacts of climate change and human perturbations on marine ecosystems. The Baltic Sea, one of the biggest estuarine systems in the world, was chosen as the study site. BSi samples from a sediment core in Bothnian Bay, the most northern tip of the Baltic Sea, and diatom samples from the Oder River, draining into the southern Baltic Sea were measured and reported in Paper II and III, after establishing a method for Si isotope measurements (Paper I). Si isotope fractionation during diatom production and dissolution was also investigated in a laboratory-controlled experiment (Paper IV) to validate the observations from the field. The major result is that Si isotope signatures in BSi can be used as an historical archive for diatom growth and also related to changes in climate variables. There is isotopic evidence that the Si cycle has been significantly altered in the Baltic Sea catchment by human activities. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

This thesis has compared the distribution of certain types of Viking Age Eastern Baltic bronze artefacts discovered on Gotland. This was done in order to observe different parts of Gotland´s interaction with different groups in the Baltic Sea region and how this might have influenced the identities and ideas of the individuals involved in the interaction. The objects and their finding contexts were subjected to a geographical analysis and applied to a map of Viking Age Gotland. Different distribution patterns can be observed for different types of artefacts, as well as a shift in pattern of interaction in the Baltic Sea region over time.

Understanding the interaction of multiple drivers and their compounded effects on ecosystem dynamics is a key challenge for marine resource management. The Baltic Sea is one of the world’s seas most strongly impacted by effects from both human activities and climate. In the late 1980’s changes in climate in combination with intensive fishing initiated a reorganization of the Central Baltic Sea (CBS) food web resulting in the current sprat-dominated state. In the future, climate change is projected to cause drastic changes in hydrodynamic conditions of the world oceans in general, and the Baltic Sea in particular.   In this thesis, CBS food web responses to the combined effects of fishing, nutrient loads and climate were tested for the past (1974-2006) and projected into the future (2010-2098). A new food web model for the CBS (BaltProWeb) was developed using extensive monitoring data across trophic levels. This model described the past food web dynamics well, and was hence also used for future (2010-2098) projections. Different ensemble modeling approaches were employed when testing the food web response to future scenarios. The results show that regardless the climate change, the management of nutrient loads and cod fishing are likely to determine the food web dynamics and trophic control mechanisms in the future Baltic Sea. Consequently, the variation in the food web projections was large, ranging from a strongly eutrophied and sprat-dominated to a cod-dominated CBS with eutrophication levels close to today’s values. The results also suggest a potential risk of abrupt ecosystem changes in the future CBS, particularly if the nutrient loads are not reduced. Finally, the studies illustrate the usefulness of the ensemble modeling approach, both from the perspective of ecosystem-based management as well as for studying the importance of different mechanisms in the ecosystem response. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: In press. Paper 5: Submitted.</p>

Den planerade gasledningen Nord Stream, eller ”den ryska gasledningen”, har varit föremål för enintensiv debatt sedan hösten 2006 i såväl pressen som i riksdagen. Debatten har spänt över ett brettfält där miljöhänsyn och säkerhetspolitiska aspekter har avlösts av inlägg rörande Sverigeshandlingsfrihet inom ramen för internationella havsrättsliga avtal och hur Nord Stream skahandläggas för att denna handlingsfrihet inte ska begränsas inom ramen för svenskförvaltningslagstiftning.Föreliggande arbete analyserar debatten runt Nord Stream från det att projektet presenterades påvåren 2005 och fram till den särskilda debatt som hölls i riksdagen samma dag som Nord StreamAG inlämnade sig ansökan om miljöprövning till regeringen. Källmaterialet har hämtats fråndebattsidorna i Sveriges två största morgontidningar samt från riksdagens kammare och därefteranalyserats med en argumentationsanalytisk modell enligt Arne Næss. / The planed gas pipeline Nord Stream, or “the Russian gas pipeline”, has been subject of an intensedebate since the fall off 2006 in both media and in the Swedish parliament. The debate havecovered a wide area of subjects where environmental issues and security policy have beenfollowed by arguments concerning Swedish freedom of action within the framework of the UNLaw of the sea and with Swedish administrative law.The purpose of this work is to analyse the debate concerning Nord Stream from the time when theproject was first presented and up until the Special debate in the Swedish parliament on the sameday as the request from Nord Stream AG to go on with the project was received by the Swedishgovernment. The source materials are debate articles in the two leading Swedish newspapers andfrom the Swedish parliament, the riksdag. The material has then been analysed from an argumentanalysis model according to Arne Næss. / Avdelning: ALB - Slutet Mag 3 C-upps. Hylla: Upps. ChP 06-08

No description available.

During the 1960´s and 1970´s the number of grey seals in the Baltic Sea was decreasing rapidly, mostly due to hunting and toxic substances like DDT and PCB. When hunting became less intense and toxic substances decreased in the environment the grey seal population started to increase. Today grey seals are found common in the Baltic Sea and have started to become a big treat and a problem to the fishing industry. The grey seal destroys and enters fishing traps and consumes large quantities of the fish that have been caught. The knowledge of the grey seal, like abundance and food preferences, is today limited. It is also important to define the position of the grey seal in the ecosystem in the Baltic Sea and to be able to predict changes that could occur if the population would rapidly decrease or increase. This project was therefore started in an attempt to increase the knowledge about the grey seals food preferences. The study was made in tree separate parts. Part one contained analyses of prey remains from stomachs and digestive tract from fourteen individuals put down in two geographically separate areas. The collected material from the seal digestive tract was cleaned and otoliths (hearing stones from fish), scales and back vertebra from fish eaten by the grey seal were sorted out. With the help of hard parts collected from the intestines the food preferences of the seals could be estimated. Eight different species of prey was found. The species were herring (Clupea harengus membras), sprat (Sprattus sprattus), common whitefish (Coregonus spp), perch (Perca fluviatilis), salmon (Salmo salar), trout (Salmo trutta) and roach (Rutilus rutilus). In two of the digestive tracts several individuals of the isopod Saduria entomon were found. No earlier studies describe the isopod as a food source for the grey seals in the Baltic Sea. The findings are therefore unique information. The results showed that during summer the main part of the grey seal diet in the gulf of Sundsvall and in the surrounding coastal area of Hårte was herring and sprat. No significant difference in food preferences was shown between the investigated seals from the gulf of Sundsvall and seals from the surrounding coastal area of Hårte. The second part was made to investigate if it was possible to build a floating platform that would work as a resting place for the grey seal. The surface of the platform was covered by a layer that keeps the seal scats on the platform so that it could be collected. Otoliths from herring and common whitefish were found on the floating platform. Because the platform could not be under surveillance during the whole study some uncertainties about whether the otoliths found came from grey seal or from resting cormorants or other fish eating birds. However, the otolit size is linearly related to the fish size and this relationship can be used to track the predator. Otoliths from herring taken by grey seals and otoliths found on the platform were significantly bigger than the otoliths originating from the prey of cormorants. The results indicated that the common whitefish size was too big for a full grown cormorant bird to consume. The common whitefish size showed that it probably not had been cormorants that had deposited the otoliths on the platform. The platform method was concluded promising but it needs to be modified in order to work more effective in the future. In the third part scats were collected from the area of Österåsen to increase the amount of information about the grey seals food preferences. The knowledge of the grey seals diet in the Baltic Sea is today limited and few similar study’s have earlier been made. The collected scats and otoliths in this project are therefore unique. 2008:Bi 2

<p>The Baltic Sea is the one of the most studied seas area in the world and it is severely affected by human activities where eutrophication is the overall environmental problem. Although there is an international agreement that nutrient input to the Baltic should be reduced, the measures taken so far have not resulted in major reductions in nutrient inputs nor in environmental improvements. Sewage reduction is the most important factor for transparency improvement of the Baltic Proper and wetland restoration and change of N spreading time have no effective role in this aspect. Within the Baltic area, establishment of sewage treatment technology in Russia and Poland is more cost-effective than it would be in Sweden. Without this measure transparency improvement would be expensive. In Sweden NOx reduction is most cost-effective measure for transparency improvement in the Baltic Proper and without this measure the total cost would be ~ 58.5 million euro.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Helsinki, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-43). Also available in electronic format via Internet.