Studiens syfte är att undersöka om, och i så fall hur dagens elever i grundskolan undervisas om hållbar utveckling enligt riktlinjerna i Baltic 21E. Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär och bygger på intervjuer av skolledning samt undervisande lärare i NO- och SO-ämnen vid två högstadieskolor i två kommuner i nordöstra Skåne. Baltic 21E:s övergripande mål gäller alla utbildningsnivåer, men anger speciellt för grundskolan att eleverna skall ha ”kompetens, värderingar och färdigheter för att kunna vara aktiva, demokratiska och ansvarsfulla medborgare och för att kunna fatta egna beslut”, samt kunna delta i beslut inom olika nivåer i samhället för att skapa ett hållbart samhälle. Eleverna ska också ha färdigheter, kompetens och relevant yrkesutbildning för sitt framtida arbetsliv. Resultatet visar att eleverna når likvärdiga kunskapsmål trots att de två skolorna bedriver undervisningen olika. Läromedlen är samma eller i vart fall likartade och innehåller de punkter Baltic 21E pekar på. De använda läromedlen uppfyller de normer Baltic 21E anger, varför alla grundskolor har möjligheten att bereda sina elever en tillfredsställande undervisning om hållbar utveckling, men ämnena bör samordnas bättre. Begreppet hållbar utveckling bör markeras med en ”flagga”, så att den ämnesövergripande kopplingen blir tydligare, och lättare att förstå för eleverna.

The reproductive success for pelagic spawning Baltic flounders is strongly linked to the hydrodynamics in the spawning areas. Egg survival is dependent upon the ability to achieve neutral buoyancy at a depth interval where temperature and oxygen concentrations are favourable for egg development. The main focus of this thesis was to compare egg survival probabilities of pelagic eggs from Baltic flounder in the Bornholm, Gdansk and Gotland basins, prior to and after the saline water inflow in December 2014. The results showed greatly enhanced survival probabilities in Bornholm basin 2015 (p<0.01), as egg survival increased from 47% in 2014 to 100% the following year. In Gdansk basin the situation was similar, and survival probability increased from 13% to 100% (p<0.01). In Gotland basin no difference in survival probability was identified, although the dominant cause of mortality shifted from sedimentation, i.e. due to low salinity conditions in 2014, to oxygen deficiency in 2015 (p<0,01). / BONUS INSPIRE-project, the joint Baltic Sea research and development programme (Art 185), funded jointly by the European Union’s Seventh Programme for research, technological development and demonstration and the Swedish Research Council Formas

Persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) tend to accumulate in biota and are transferred through the aquatic food web, which result in a high accumulation in marine mammals. In recent years various novel flame retardants (nBFRs), which have replaced the banned PBDEs, have also started to occur in the environment. These nBFRs have similar properties as PBDEs, such as long-range transport and accumulation in biota. The purpose with this study was to evaluate a method by using pre-packed silica columns for quantification of PCBs, DDT, PBDEs and nBFRs in seal blubber, in order to facilitate the pre-treatment and decrease the time. To elute the different POPs from the pre-packed silica column; hexane, toluene and dichloromethane were used in different stages. By using this method levels of PCB and DDT were determined. For DDT the concentration was 8.28 ng/g lipid and 8.94 ng/g lipid for the two samples that was analysed, and the analysis of the PCBs showed a higher trend for the higher chlorinated PCBs. As the pre-packed silica columns are a relative new method. Further studies are therefore needed on these columns to further improve the sample clean-up and fractionation of the different POPs in environmental samples.

Global records of temperature show a warming trend both in the atmosphere and in the oceans. Current climate change scenarios indicate that global temperature will continue to increase in the future. The effects will however be very different in different geographic regions. In northern Europe precipitation is projected to increase along with temperature. Increased precipitation will lead to higher river discharge to the Baltic Sea, which will be accompanied by higher inflow of allochthonous organic matter (ADOM) from the terrestrial system. Both changes in temperature and ADOM may affect community composition, altering the ratio between heterotrophic and autotrophic organisms. Climate changes may thus have severe and complex effects in the Baltic Sea, which has low species diversity and is highly vulnerable to environmental change. The aim of my thesis was to acquire a conceptual understanding of aquatic food web responses to increased temperature and inputs of ADOM. These factors were chosen to reflect plausible climate change scenarios. I performed microcosm and mesocosm experiments as well as a theoretical modeling study. My studies had a holistic approach as they covered entire food webs, from bacteria and phytoplankton to planktivorous fish. The results indicate a strong positive effect of increased temperature and ADOM input on the bacterial community and the microbial food web. However, at the prevailing naturally low nutrient concentrations in the Baltic Sea, the effect of increased temperature may be hampered by nutrient deficiency. In general my results show that inputs of ADOM will cause an increase of the bacterial production. This in turn can negatively affect the production at higher trophic levels, due to establishment of an intermediate trophic level, consisting of protozoa. However, the described effects can be counteracted by a number of factors, as for example the relatively high temperature optimum of fish, which will lead to a more efficient exploitation of the system. Furthermore, the length of the food web was observed to be a strong regulating factor for food web responses and ecosystem functioning. Hence, the effect of environmental changes may differ quite drastically depending on the number of trophic levels and community composition of the system. The results of my thesis are of importance as they predict possible ecological consequences of climate change, and as they also demonstrate that variables cannot be examined separately. / <p>This thesis was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council FORMAS to AA and SL (217-2006-674), the Centre for Environmental Research in Umeå (CMF) to UB, AA and SL, and by the Swedish strategic research program ECOCHANGE to Umeå University.</p>

Anthropogenic environmental changes can serve as drivers for evolutionary responses in wild populations. To predict the long-term impact of anthropogenic changes on populations, it is crucial to understand the genetic effects caused by these disturbances. The Baltic Sea is considered to be one of the world’s most contaminated seas, and the increase of anthropogenic chemical pollution is a major threat to its ecosystems. This thesis assesses the impact of harbors and sewage treatment plants on physiological traits and genetic structure of resident populations of blue mussels at replicated sites in the Baltic Sea. The initial evaluation of the overall genetic pattern in blue mussel populations in the Swedish West Coast, the Baltic Proper and the Bothnian Sea found genetic differentiation between the three water basins and a low genetic differentiation within each basin, especially within the Baltic Proper. Despite the low genetic differentiation among blue mussels within the Baltic Proper, a parallel genetic differentiation associated with sewage treatment plant effluents was found in this basin. This included genomic regions with a high degree of differentiation between reference sites and sites affected by sewage plants effluent. This genetic differentiation is suggested to be due to post-dispersal selection acting in each generation. In contrast, no parallel genetic differentiation was associated with harbors. We identified five genomic regions in blue mussels, showing strong signs of selection, shared among three out of four replicated reference sites and sites affected by sewage effluents in the Baltic Proper i.e. Askö, Tvärminne and Karlskrona. An initial characterization of these genomic regions revealed functions related to immune and endocrine responses, oxidative stress and shell formation. Our results indicate that selection caused by sewage effluents involves multiple loci. The same genomic regions are found across different locations in the Baltic Proper but there are also unique genomic regions at each location. No genotoxic or histopathological effects were found among blue mussels from sewage effluent-affected areas but a higher frequency of histological abnormalities in the digestive gland were observed in mussels from harbors. / Evolutionära anpassningar till miljöstörningar i marina ekosystem: genetisk ekotoxikologi i Östersjön

The thesis covers the topic of nominal convergence in terms of Maastricht convergence criteria applied to Baltic States, followed by multicriteria analysis of real convergence.

This dissertation takes a step towards providing a better understanding of post-socialist welfare state development from a theoretical as well as an empirical perspective. The overall analytical goal of this thesis has been to critically assess the development of social policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using them as illustrative examples of post-socialist welfare state development in the light of the theories, approaches and typologies that have been developed to study affluent capitalist democracies. The four studies included in this dissertation aspire to a common aim in a number of specific ways. The first study tries to place the ideal-typical welfare state models of the Baltic States within the well-known welfare state typologies. At the same time, it provides a rich overview of the main social security institutions in the three countries by comparing them with each other and with the previous structures of the Soviet period. It examines the social insurance institutions of the Baltic States (old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, short-term benefits, sickness, maternity and parental insurance and family benefits) with respect to conditions of eligibility, replacement rates, financing and contributions. The findings of this study indicate that the Latvian social security system can generally be labelled as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models. The Estonian social security system can generally also be characterised as a mix of the basic security and corporatist models, even if there are some weak elements of the targeted model in it. It appears that the institutional changes developing in the social security system of Lithuania have led to a combination of the basic security and targeted models of the welfare state. Nevertheless, as the example of the three Baltic States shows, there is diversity in how these countries solve problems within the field of social policy. In studying the social security schemes in detail, some common features were found that could be attributed to all three countries. Therefore, the critical analysis of the main social security institutions of the Baltic States in this study gave strong supporting evidence in favour of identifying the post-socialist regime type that is already gaining acceptance within comparative welfare state research. Study Two compares the system of social maintenance and insurance in the Soviet Union, which was in force in the three Baltic countries before their independence, with the currently existing social security systems. The aim of the essay is to highlight the forces that have influenced the transformation of the social policy from its former highly universal, albeit authoritarian, form, to the less universal, social insurance-based systems of present-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This study demonstrates that the welfare–economy nexus is not the only important factor in the development of social programs. The results of this analysis revealed that people's attitudes towards distributive justice and the developmental level of civil society also play an important part in shaping social policies. The shift to individualism in people’s mentality and the decline of the labour movement, or, to be more precise, the decline in trade union membership and influence, does nothing to promote the development of social rights in the Baltic countries and hinders the expansion of social policies. The legacy of the past has been another important factor in shaping social programs. It can be concluded that social policy should be studied as if embedded not only in the welfare-economy nexus, but also in the societal, historical and cultural nexus of a given society. Study Three discusses the views of the state elites on family policy within a wider theoretical setting covering family policy and social policy in a broader sense and attempts to expand this analytical framework to include other post-socialist countries. The aim of this essay is to explore the various views of the state elites in the Baltics concerning family policy and, in particular, family benefits as one of the possible explanations for the observed policy differences. The qualitative analyses indicate that the Baltic States differ significantly with regard to the motives behind their family policies. Lithuanian decision-makers seek to reduce poverty among families with children and enhance the parents’ responsibility for bringing up their children. Latvian policy-makers act so as to increase the birth rate and create equal opportunities for children from all families. Estonian policy-makers seek to create equal opportunities for all children and the desire to enhance gender equality is more visible in the case of Estonia in comparison with the other two countries. It is strongly arguable that there is a link between the underlying motives and the kinds of family benefits in a given country. This study, thus, indicates how intimately the attitudes of the state bureaucrats, policy-makers, political elite and researchers shape social policy. It confirms that family policy is a product of the prevailing ideology within a country, while the potential influence of globalisation and Europeanisation is detectable too. The final essay takes into account the opinions of welfare users and examines the performances of the institutionalised family benefits by relying on the recipients’ opinions regarding these benefits. The opinions of the populations as a whole regarding government efforts to help families are compared with those of the welfare users. Various family benefits are evaluated according to the recipients' satisfaction with those benefits as well as the contemporaneous levels of subjective satisfaction with the welfare programs related to the absolute level of expenditure on each program. The findings of this paper indicate that, in Latvia, people experience a lower level of success regarding state-run family insurance institutions, as compared to those in Lithuania and Estonia. This is deemed to be because the cash benefits for families and children in Latvia are, on average, seen as marginally influencing the overall financial situation of the families concerned. In Lithuania and Estonia, the overwhelming majority think that the family benefit systems improve the financial situation of families. It appears that recipients evaluated universal family benefits as less positive than targeted benefits. Some universal benefits negatively influenced the level of general satisfaction with the family benefits system provided in the countries being researched. This study puts forward a discussion about whether universalism is always more legitimate than targeting. In transitional economies, in which resources are highly constrained, some forms of universal benefits could turn out to be very expensive in relative terms, without being seen as useful or legitimate forms of help to families. In sum, by closely examining the different aspects of social policy, this dissertation goes beyond the over-generalisation of Eastern European welfare state development and, instead, takes a more detailed look at what is really going on in these countries through the examples of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In addition, another important contribution made by this study is that it revives ‘western’ theoretical knowledge through ‘eastern’ empirical evidence and provides the opportunity to expand the theoretical framework for post-socialist societies.

Forskare förutspår att den globala uppvärmningen kommer att påverka Öster-sjön och omgivande landmassor med högre temperatur och mer nederbörd. En konsekvens av högre nederbörd är ökat läckage och avrinning av sötvatten från landmassorna vilket leder till högre näringstillgång i Östersjön. Ytterligare en konsekvens av ökad tillförsel av sötvatten är utspädningseffekten av salthalten i Östersjön. Dessa förändringar kommer att påverka Östersjöns ekosystem och arterna i. Hur väl ett ekologiskt samhälle klarar av en förändrad miljö beror på minst tre faktorer; diversitet, artsammansättning och interaktionsmönster mellan arter. Denna studie undersöker interaktionen mellan mört och abborre samt hur interaktionen påverkas då salthalt, näringstillgång och temperatur förändras. Med provfiskedata från elva lokaler har interaktionen beräknats med tidsserieanalys genom att använda en multivariat autoregressiv modell. Resultaten visar att både abborre och mört har negativ effekt på varandra. Dessutom är båda arterna kraftigt täthetsberoende. Hur interaktionen påverkas av förändringar av påverkansvariablerna har studerats grafiskt. Abborres effekt på mört är den enda interaktionen som med statistisk signifikans konstateras temperaturberoende. Resultaten från studien visar att den negativa effekt abborre har på mört blir mindre då temperaturen ökar. Effekten avtar linjärt då vattentemperaturen är 15 °C. Detta tyder på att abborres reglerande effekt på mört eventuellt kommer att minska under de förväntade klimatförändringarna. / The science community predict that the rising global temperature will affect the region of Scandinavia with more precipitation and as a consequence more runoff and leakage of nutrients to the Baltic Sea. During this century salinity in the Baltic Sea is expected to decrease with up to 1.5 - 2 g / kg due to dilution from the higher runoff volumes and the temperature is expected to increase with 3 - 5 °C. All these changes will affect the Baltic Sea ecosystem and the species within it. How well an ecological community can adapt to these changes is determined by the community stability which is based on at least three factors; diversity, species composition and interaction patterns between species. This study aims to investigate the interaction patterns between perch and roach, two well represented species along the Swedish coastline, and how these interaction patterns are effected by changes in salinity, watertemperature, and nutrient load. The study used a multivariate autoregressive model (MAR(1)), which is a linear model that can be used to investigate interaction patterns. The input in the MAR(1)-model was time series based on catch per unit effort of perch and roach from eleven different places along the Swedish east coast. Both perch and roach have a negative impact on the other species, also a strong density dependence for both species were found. Temperatures effect on the interaction; perch effect on roach, is the only one in this study that is statistically significant. Perch has a strong negative effect on roach when the temperature is around 15 °C. This negative effect decreases linearly with higher temperatures.

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Title: Regional Identity and Regional Differentiation of the Baltic Countries Author: Josef Miškovský Key words: regional identity, regional differentiation, Baltic States, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania he thesis deals with the regional identity of the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) at different scale levels. The theoretical baselines of the thesis are the dynamic concepts of institutionalization of the regions and their formation, disappearance and restoration. This abstract view on the formation of regional identity is based on theories of social identity and social representation. In the thesis, mainly the "macroidentity" of the Baltic States, i.e. their formation in the space between the European and the Russian spheres and within the superior regions of northern, eastern and central Europe is evaluated. The concepts of these regions and subsequently their influence on the territorial identity of the Baltic States are discussed. The elements of internal identity of individual Baltic States, according to which the Baltic region can be considered a distinctive region within the concept of northeastern Europe, are discussed in later section of the thesis. Attention is also paid to the internal coherence of the Baltic region and the elements that integrate or disintegrate this...