This change is slow and, meanwhile, other drivers such as climate-related changes in temperature, runoff, and sea-level rise, as well as contaminants could be become more important drivers of ecosystem change in the future. As these drivers grow in significance, they form novel physical and biogeochemical settings with important implications for the ecosystem status and biodiversity, from microbes to fish. Further, fisheries are a compounding factor that exerts top-down control on Baltic Sea ecosystems.
New challenges
This ecosystem transition poses a challenge for current management strategies and policies that were formulated when eutrophication was by far the most dominant driver. Policies are already moving to broad goal-oriented processes such as Agenda 2030, which brings new aspects of the Baltic Sea environmental status to view. Moreover, emerging technologies and tools allow us to address global change biology issues and ecosystem dynamics through the prism of the Baltic Sea.
New approaches
In the last 10 years, Baltic Sea research has embraced new interdisciplinary approaches and scientific disciplines, filling gaps in crucial knowledge. In this Congress, we seek to provide new insights from the interlinked processes in the catchment and the coastal zone as growing research foci. The congress will present advances in our understanding of biogeochemical cycles in the open Baltic as well as new approaches addressing genomics, population structure/function, and evolutionary changes and how climate and human impact the system. Furthermore, three applied sessions will provide an overview of recent advances in:
- Monitoring and Assessment
- Technology for Science
- Management strategies underpinned by science.
Welcome to Stockholm University in August 2019 for the 12th edition of the Baltic Sea Science Congress!
