In order to understand the historical, current and potential future importance of wetlands for filtering of nutrients and pollutants along their transport pathways from land to sea, a main question is: How do sediment-plant water-wetland systems, and individual wetlands, in drainage basins modulate the ecosystem services (and disservices) of filtering/attenuating (and exporting loads of) waterborne tracers and pollutants from drainage basins? The combination of on one side natural processes and on the other hand social and economical processes on the other would give us a better understand of social-hydrological factors for nutrient and pollutant loads to the Baltic Sea.

By focusing on the data-rich Forsmark and Simpervarp areas, and adopting an actor-based approach, we can capture both "humans and non-humans" in the socio-hydrological nested system. We will also investigate how data-driven calculations and scenario estimates of the hydrological water resource system can be tailored to quantitatively predict basin-scale nutrient and pollution loading considering relevant hydro-climatic and direct human / social-driven changes in the landscape (eg land and water), noting also that quantitative changes of water in turn also affect water quality.
 

Researchers and departments:

Jerker Jarsjö, Department of Physical Geography
Georgia Destouni, Department of Physical Geography
Ulf Jansson, Department of Human Geography
Annika Strandin Pers, Department of Human Geography
Johan Berg, Department of Human Geography