This research explores the development of sustainable tourism in destinations in the Baltic region and in the case of Visby, Gotland. The purpose is to contribute to the understanding how destination management organisations and local communities in these destinations work together to develop the destination. The aim is to investigate how these actors work together in practice and to compare the findings with an ideal collaborative approach. The research design consists of a mixed-method approach and uses two web-based questionnaires to investigate the destinations in the Baltic region and in-depth interviews to gain insights into the case of Visby, Gotland. The research findings provide information on how sustainable tourism is targeted and understood in the destinations and what drivers and barriers for a collaborative approach exist. The findings create a better understanding on how different actors in the destination work and why an ideal collaborative approach is a necessity for the development of a sustainable destination. Overall, the results shed light on the fact that an ideal collaboration can overcome the four major lacks (lack of communication, lack of knowledge, lack of responsibilities, and lack of support) as found in the destinations. This study provides an understanding of factors affecting the development of a collaborative approach and thereby, the development of sustainable tourism. Further, the study highlights how an ideal collaborative approach in a destination can foster sustainability in the tourism industry.

xvi, 330 p. : ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation focuses on an urban development project outside St. Petersburg, Russia, called the Baltic Pearl. Financed by a consortium of firms based in Shanghai, China, the Baltic Pearl signals several changes in contemporary Russia. At the scale of the region and the nation-state, the project reflects growing political cooperation between the Russian and Chinese governments; it also parallels an increase in economic partnership, including use of Chinese labor. However, social processes at the scale of the city may militate against the success of this project. City residents fearful of rumored Chinese migration feel alarm over the Baltic Pearl because they associate it with narratives of Chinatowns inhabited by labor migrants; other residents already resentful of being left behind in the economic transformation associate the project with the city administration's neglect of their needs. Thus, closer examination of the Baltic Pearl offers the opportunity to gauge commonalities in the causes behind xenophobia and claims of dispossession. Using a theoretical approach based on both humanist and critical geography, I develop an original reading of Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space to which I give the term socio-spatial paradigm. This concept allows me to conduct an analysis of spatialities in statements of the vision and purpose of the Baltic Pearl made by various individuals and groups. I consider the negotiation over the project's form between Chinese and Russian officials, planners, and architects; local protest and support for the quarter as articulated in newspaper articles, blogs, a survey, and interviews; and individual narratives of spatial form in the city as recounted in a survey and interviews. The aim of the different analyses is to evaluate the capacity of St. Petersburg to adapt to global pressures related to economic restructuring and migration streams, and to become a truly "world city" in terms of cultural multiplicity as well as financial capacity. The conclusion discusses the commensurability of information gained at different scales, from interview narratives to government statements. The study asserts the need to develop better models for incorporating information gained at finer scales into our evaluation of state-to-state relations. / Advisers: Dr. Alexander B. Murphy; Dr. Susan W. Hardwick

Drawing on a theoretical framework based on securitization and threat construction, the attempt in this study was to broaden the understanding of how the perception of a Russian threat in the Baltic Sea is influencing Swedish defence and security policy. The method used was based on Bacchis WPR-approach. Three questions were asked at the beginning of this study, regardning how Russia is viewed in Sweden, how the representation of Russia has changed from the war in Georgia in 2008 until 2018, as well as how Sweden is to strengthen it's defence capacity, nationally and through cooperation, to tacle the Russian threat. Four key aspects of Russian behaviour that is considered threatening were identified. Russia is viewed as a country with power ambitions and expansionist tendencies; characterised as tactically unpredictable; looked upon as a risk calculating actor; and considered misstrusting in its views of the West. The perception of Russia is complex which creates difficulties regarding how the threat is to be met. Policy makers have urged the strengthening of Swedish national defence capacity to create a conflict threshold in the region. To further strengthen this threshold, the bilateral defence cooperation with Finland has deepened. In addition, the question of military non-alignment has been raised in relation to a possible Swedish membership in Nato. The answer to whether or not Sweden should join depends on political affiliation. This underlines the theoretical assumptions; security and defence policy is not merely a response to an external circumstance, but rather the result of an interplay between circumstance and actor.

Rapporten ämnar undersöka bottensediment bärgade från ett område i västraGotlandsbassängen i Östersjön. Östersjön är ett ansträngt bräckvattenhav medutbredda övergödningsproblem, döda bottnar och hotad biologisk fauna. Söktaresultat berör fosforhalt, förekommande metaller, mineralsammansättning,kornstorleksfraktioner samt organisk halt för ett projekt där målet ärsedimentbärgning för betongindustrin och brytning av fosfor som arbetar motövergödning med kretslopp och cirkulär ekonomi. Detta uppnås med följandeanalysmetoder: ICP-MS, XRD, TGA och laserdiffraktometer tillsammans med RISE CBI. Analyserna visade att sedimentet är ett finsediment med en hög organisk halt ochkan klassificeras som postglacial siltgyttja och innehåller 1,63 mg/kg TS fosfor.Förekommande mineral är albit, kvarts och glimmer. Metaller som påträffades var,men inte uteslutande kisel, 214000 mg/kg TS, aluminium 80600 mg/kg torrt sediment(TS) och järn 49900 mg/kg TS. Under diskussionen hanteras renings-ochseparationsprocesser för fosfor och metaller, av vilka Bio-P metoden ochhyperackumulerande växter tas upp. / This project aimed to investigate sediment salvaged from an area in the westernGotland basin of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is a stressed brackish water sea withextensive eutrophication problems, so-called dead zones and threatened fauna. Theresults relate to phosphorus content, prevalent metals, mineral composition, grainsize distribution, and organic content. This work is part of a project where the goal isphosphorous recovery for concrete and phosphorus mining with circulation andcircular economics to better the current situation in the Baltic sea. The physical andchemical properties of the sediments were investigated using the following analyticalmethods: ICP-MS, XRD, TGA and laser diffractometer together with RISE CBI.The results show that the sediment is a postglacial silt gyttja, with a phosphorouscontent of 1.63 mg / kg of dry sediment (DS). Existing minerals are albite, quartz andmica. Elements found were, but not exclusively silica, 214000 mg/kg DS, aluminium80600 mg/kg DS and iron 49900 mg/kg DS. Relevant purification and separation processes for phosphorus and metals, of which the Bio-P method and hyper-accumulating plants are two, are discussed.

This study is a multidisciplinary approach to Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) where predictive models have been developed regarding the current distribution and potential spread of two invasive species found in Baltic Sea waters. Invasive species in the Baltic have long been an ecological and economic problem and the two species studied are well known for their adaptability in colonization and detrimental effects on local ecology all over the world. First, the Round Goby (Neogobius Melanostomus) has been steadily colonizing the Swedish Baltic coastline since 2008, the impact of which on local ecosystems is not fully understood. Also, the Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir Sinensis), found in Swedish waters since the 1930’s, has been known to be a robust invader of ecosystems but presence in the Baltic is still not well explained. Four high spatial resolution models have been developed, three respective Round Goby and one for Mitten Crab. Two models are specific to the Blekinge/Hanöbukten region of the Swedish Baltic Sea coast, showing predicted current distribution of Round Goby. Two are predictions of Round Goby and Mitten Crab transferred or projected to other regions, with different approaches in setting model parameters and choosing variables, showing current and potential distribution. This study features: exploratory data analysis and filtering using GIS tools, highly discriminant environmental variable selection and rejection, and several different approaches to modelling in Maxent using custom and default settings. Predictive maps have been developed showing current distribution and potential spread as well as explanatory tabular data outlining direct and indirect drivers of species presence. Maxent has proven to be a powerful predictive tool on a regional basis, and proximity to introduction locations play a major role. Maxent, used in combination with spatial data modelling, exploration and filtering techniques has yielded a valid explanatory model as well. Transferring predictions to other regions is quite sensitive, however, and can depend heavily on species, sampling strategy and similarity of habitat type. Round Goby predictions were successfully created regionally and transferred to Stockholm, but Mitten Crab predictions were not successfully transferred to Blekinge.

Western-origin women’s lifestyle magazines have enjoyed great success in post-Soviet Russia, and represent part of the globalisation of the post-Soviet media landscape. Existing studies of post-Soviet Russian women’s magazines have tended to focus on either magazine content or reader interpretations, their role in the media marketplace, or representations of themes such as glamour culture or conspicuous consumption. Based on a discourse analysis of the three Russian women’s lifestyle magazines Elle, Liza and Cosmopolitan, and interviews with 39 Russian women, the thesis interrogates femininity norms in contemporary Russia. This thesis addresses a gap in the literature in foregrounding a feminist approach to a combined analysis of both the content of the magazines, and how readers decode the magazines. Portrayals of embodied femininity in women’s magazines are a chief focus, in addition to reader decodings of these portrayals. The thesis shows how certain forms of aesthetic and cultural capital are linked to femininity, and how women’s magazines discursively construct normative femininity via portraying these forms of cultural capital as necessary for women. It also relates particular ways of performing femininity, such as conspicuous consumption and beauty labour, to wider patriarchal discourses in Russian society. Furthermore, the thesis engages with pertinent debates around cultural globalisation in relation to post-Soviet media and culture, and addresses both change and continuity in post-Soviet gender norms; not only from the Soviet era into the present, but across an oft-perceived East/West axis via the horizontalization and glocalisation of culture. The thesis discusses two main aspects of change: 1) the role now played by conspicuous consumption in social constructions of normative femininity; and 2) the expectation of ever increasing resources women are now expected to devote to beauty labour as part of performing normative femininity. However, I also argue that it is appropriate from a gender studies perspective to highlight Russian society as patriarchal as well as post-socialist. As such, I highlight the cross-cultural experiences women in contemporary Russia women share with women in other parts of the world. Accordingly, the research suggests that women’s lifestyle magazines in the post-Soviet era have drawn on more established gender discourses in Soviet-Russian society as a means of facilitating the introduction of relatively new norms and practices, particularly linked to a culture of conspicuous consumption.

This thesis deals with important factors that affect the temporal organization of emergence and early survival of Baltic salmon (Salmo salar L.). The study population was obtained from the Norrfors hatchery (63°50'N,20°05'E), Umeälven (Ume river) in Northern Sweden. The main objectives of the thesis has been to study; a: the effect of female and egg characteristics on embryonic survival, b: the effect of egg size, temperature and photoperiod on the emergence pattern and c: the impact of early or late emergence on survival in relation to predation and limited territorial space. The main results are summarized as follows: (1) Fecundity and egg size increased with increasing weight of females. No effect of female size were found on egg colour. Longer impoundment and later stripping increase egg colour. Egg mortality was not correlated with egg colour. Stripping date was found to have the strongest effect on mortality. (2) Egg size had no effect on the timing of emergence but fry of different egg size emerged synchronously. Fry from large eggs left the gravel as heavier fry and with a larger proportion of yolk left compared to fry from small eggs. (3) The number of days and number of degree days from hatching to 50% emergence decreased exponentially with increasing temperature. Synchronization of emergence increased with increasing temperature. Fry emerged with more yolk at 12 °C compared to 6 °C. (4) Eggs kept in a LD 16:8 light regime hatched mainly during the light period, while eggs kept in constant darkness hatched continously over a 24 hour period. Alevins kept at different light regimes (light>4h) from hatching until emergence left the gravel during the dark period. Daylength had no effect on the annual onset of emergence. (5) In a laboratory stream channel, predator presence at emergence increased mortality especially in early emerging fry. If the predator was introduced after completed emergence high mortality was noted among late emerging fry. The presence of fish predators and a limited territorial space for fry seemed to make early and late emergence hazardous and to favour a "peak" emergence. In the presence of a predator the fry changed their behaviour by reducing their swimming activity. / digitalisering@umu.se

Animals living in marine sediments (the second largest habitat on earth) play a major role in global biogeochemical cycling. By feeding on organic matter from settled phytoplankton blooms they produce food for higher trophic levels and nutrients that can fuel primary production. In the Baltic Sea, anthropogenic stresses, such as eutrophication and introductions of invasive species, have altered phytoplankton dynamics and benthic communities. This thesis discusses the effects of different types of phytoplankton on the deposit-feeding community and the importance of benthic biodiversity for fate of the phytoplankton bloom-derived organic matter. Deposit-feeders survived and fed on settled cyanobacterial bloom material and in doing so accumulated the cyanobacterial toxin nodularin. Their growth after feeding on cyanobacteria was much slower than on a diet of spring bloom diatoms. The results show that settling blooms of cyanobacteria are used as food without obvious toxic effects, although they do not sustain rapid growth of the fauna. Since all tested species accumulated the cyanotoxin, negative effects higher up in the food web can not be ruled out. Both species composition and richness of deposit-feeding macrofauna influenced how much of the phytoplankton bloom material that was incorporated in fauna or retained in the sediment. The mechanism behind the positive effect of species richness was mainly niche differentiation among functionally different species, resulting in a more efficient utilization of resources at greater biodiversity. This was observed even after addition of an invasive polychaete species. Hence, species loss can be expected to affect benthic productivity negatively. In conclusion, efficiency in organic matter processing depends both on pelagic phytoplankton quality and benthic community composition and species richness. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 4: In press. Paper 5: Manuscript.</p>

Ecological studies are often performed to investigate ecosystems from a taxonomic point of view (e.g. species richness or species composition). However, investigating variations in organism traits, rather than variations based on taxonomy, can yield higher mechaninistic understanding of the ecosystem. Invertebrate communities in shallow bays have not been subject for extensive investigations of traits. Thus, this study aimed to assess impacts on trait composition of invertebrates in shallow bays by five factors: (i) topographic openness, (ii) nitrogen load, (iii) filamentous algae, (iv) submerged plants, and (v) predatory fish. In order to investigate these connections, a large-scale field sampling of shallow bay ecosystems in the Swedish part of the Baltic Sea was conducted. Statistical analysis was performed using permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) based on distance matrices, and the results were visualized with nonmetric multidimensional scaling (nMDS). The results show that topographic openness and submerged plants in shallow bays structure invertebrate trait composition. Topographic openness was shown to impact the traits of invertebrate communities slightly more (19 %) than submerged plants (14 %). Several traits are shown to be the drivers behind these results. However, not all effects on traits by the factors seem to be direct effects; some effects are likely seen due to indirect effects. The lack of effect of predatory fish is discussed and may be due to artifacts. Furthermore, different elements of trait-based studies are briefly discussed and recommendations for future trait studies are given. / PlantFish

This thesis deals with question of Scandinavian social model's transferability on Baltic countries and Iceland. The aim of the thesis is to establish whether and to what extent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland are ready to adopt the system. Three main methods are used in the thesis, namely: analysis of macroeconomic indicators and competitiveness indices, synthesis using the magic pentagon and comparison via coefficient of variation. The thesis comprises three main parts. The first one deals with theory and methodology. The second part applies information gained from databases of world organisations and follows their development. The last part then compares these figures.