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Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre
BEAM
Outreach
Funded projects 2015

BEAM projects 2015

When it became clear that Stockholm University would continue to get funds also during 2015 corresponding to those received for the BEAM program in 2010-2014, the Faculty decided to prolong the BEAM program for one year.

Over 20 projects funded
The steering board then decided to fund 24 projects, in particular for getting publications out, and for short-term projects, including planning for new research in BEAM’s sphere of interest. The grants ranged from 50 to 400 kSEK, and average about 200 kSEK, or in total 4,67 MSEK. Read more.

Successful developments
Funding was primarily given for research on ecosystem processes and hazardous substances, but also on eutrophication, climate change and laws and management. Below are the main aims of these funded projects, and short updates on their progress so far. We asked the applicant researchers three questions:

How would you describe your project in a few sentences?
What are your most important results, and for whom are they particularly useful?
How can it assist an ecosystem-based management of the marine environment?

The role of zooplankton in shallow bays

In this project the role of zooplankton for bottom-up and top-down control in shallow bays of the Baltic Sea is investigated.

Benthic-pelagic coupling in the Baltic Sea

We focus on describing the linkages between open water and seafloor habitats in the Baltic Sea, and where these linkages are most important and how they may be affected by future change.

Policy response to Baltic Sea contaminants

We have studied the usage and policy process of a few contaminants and it seems that they are treated differently within HELCOM.

Baltic Sea research workshops

A series of workshops on how to optimize SU’s marine research using infrastructure such as Askö and the new research vessel.

Status of coastal waters

A project on how the internal physical properties of archipelago basins affect the levels and variability of nutrients, chlorophyll and water transparency.

Importance of unknowns vs. classic pollutants in the Baltic

In this project we will study how toxic the many (unknown) pollutants in the Baltic Sea are in comparison to well-known pollutants that were emitted decades ago.

Aerosolisation of Baltic Sea cyanobacteria: A route to human exposure

We are interested in determining whether a toxic metabolite of cyanobacteria becomes aerosolised at the seawater-atmosphere interface. If it does then there is a potential for it to be inhaled by humans.

Bio-optics in Baltic adaptive management

In this project we develop both remote sensing and bio-optical methods for improved Baltic Sea adaptive management. The BEAM funding 2015 was used to finalize 4 manuscripts and for a test deployment of a radiometer at station B1.

BMAA distribution in pelagic and benthic food webs in the Baltic Sea

This project aims to establish BMAA distribution in pelagic and benthic trophic pathways in the northern Baltic proper.

Synthesis of brominated phenols

The goal of the project has been to produce brominated phenols (OH-PBDEs) and brominated catechols.

Climate and Baltic Sea PhD course

An international advanced PhD course on the “Impact of climate change on the marine environment with special focus on the role of changing extremes” was held 24 – 30 August 2015 on Askö.

At-sea behaviour of Baltic grey seals

This project investigates how Baltic grey seals can be used as oceanographic samplers and complement hydrographic databases. It will also provide knowledge about the habitat use of grey seals.

Microplastics and Baltic Herring

A project on microplastic prevalence, characteristics and influence on bioaccumulation of micropollutants in Baltic herring.

Eukaryotic diversity in Baltic sediments

To include meiofaunal diversity in the assessment of benthic habitat quality status would provide useful information not only to BEAM, but also to stakeholders such as HAV.

Baltic nitrogen cycling and algal blooms during summer

The funding from BEAM 2015 has been used to finalize manuscripts that are based on work by a group of contributors since the beginning of BEAM in 2011. We focus on cyanobacterial blooms as important in element cycling and food web structures in the Baltic Sea.

Global dynamics and the Baltic Sea

An interdisciplinary workshop on “cross-scale dynamics and Baltic Sea fisheries” was successfully held in Stockholm on October 20-21, 2015. The workshop was attended by 18 international experts from the scientific fields of ecology, environmental economy, political science, fisheries science and aquaculture.

The ecosystem approach in the Baltic Sea

This project has investigated how government agencies and science is changing practices towards an ecosystem approach.

Amphipod reproductive success & cyanoblooms

Amphipod reproductive success & cyanobacterial blooms

Testing how environmental conditions influence ecological niche, genotype and fitness in a key species using long-term monitoring data and chemical and genetic analyses of preserved samples.

Trophic transfer of Baltic Sea cyanobacteria in pelagic food webs

The aim of our project is to understand the role of bloom-forming cyanobacteria in the productivity of the Baltic Sea.

Benthic nutrient cycling measurements

This workshop on biogeochemical and physical processes in the benthic boundary layer is intended to define the state-of-the-art of existing measuring platforms and the needs of modeling oceanographers for quantification of processes at this interface.

Trophic transfer of natural brominated aromatics

In my project, I study production of brominated aromatic compounds (BACs) by a common filamentous red alga. Through field studies and laboratory experiments, underlying causes of BAC production, seasonal variations and trophic transfer has been investigated.

Removal of fixed nitrogen in the Baltic Sea

Our data indicate that the Baltic Sea hosts a full nitrogen cycle at the pelagic oxic-anoxic interface and that in situ production of N2O, a potent greenhouse gas, is as important as N2 production. By means of in situ lander techniques, a second study shows that the full range of nitrate reducing processes was ongoing in the sediment of the Northern Baltic.

Coastal ecosystem response to climate change

The idea was to gather, analyze and relate hydrographic and water quality data from the coastal Baltic Sea and discuss the effects of a warming climate on this interactive relationship.

Perfluorinated compounds in Baltic cod

In this study we investigate how exposure of Baltic Cod to PFOS and replacement fluorinated chemicals has changed over the last 3 decades in response to phase-out initiatives and production of alternative substances.

BEAM

Baltic Ecosystem Adaptive Management, is part of the Government's strategic research areas and is considered one of the leading research areas that have been specially chosen to profile Stockholm University.