Brackish-Water Benthic Fauna Under Fluctuating Environmental Conditions: The Role of Eutrophication, Hypoxia, and Global Change

Rousi, Heta; Korpinen, Samuli; Bonsdorff, Erik

doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00464

Cited by 18 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…On the southwestern coast of Finland, amphipods have been replaced by Baltic clam Limecola balthica and the invasive polychaetes of Marenzelleria spp., a change that is attributed to an increase in near-bottom temperature and fluctuations in salinity and oxygen (Rousi et al, 2013). Variations in zoobenthos in the Åland archipelago during 1983-2012 were associated with a salinity decline (Snickars et al, 2015), and the effects related to climate change have acted as drivers for the longterm progression of zoobenthic communities (Rousi et al, 2019;Weigel et al, 2015;Ehrnsten et al, 2020).…”

Section: 26(22) Zoobenthosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change in the Baltic Sea region: a summary

et al. 2022

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Abstract. Based on the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports of this thematic issue in Earth System Dynamics and recent peer-reviewed literature, current knowledge of the effects of global warming on past and future changes in climate of the Baltic Sea region is summarised and assessed. The study is an update of the Second Assessment of Climate Change (BACC II) published in 2015 and focuses on the atmosphere, land, cryosphere, ocean, sediments, and the terrestrial and marine biosphere. Based on the summaries of the recent knowledge gained in palaeo-, historical, and future regional climate research, we find that the main conclusions from earlier assessments still remain valid. However, new long-term, homogenous observational records, for example, for Scandinavian glacier inventories, sea-level-driven saltwater inflows, so-called Major Baltic Inflows, and phytoplankton species distribution, and new scenario simulations with improved models, for example, for glaciers, lake ice, and marine food web, have become available. In many cases, uncertainties can now be better estimated than before because more models were included in the ensembles, especially for the Baltic Sea. With the help of coupled models, feedbacks between several components of the Earth system have been studied, and multiple driver studies were performed, e.g. projections of the food web that include fisheries, eutrophication, and climate change. New datasets and projections have led to a revised understanding of changes in some variables such as salinity. Furthermore, it has become evident that natural variability, in particular for the ocean on multidecadal timescales, is greater than previously estimated, challenging our ability to detect observed and projected changes in climate. In this context, the first palaeoclimate simulations regionalised for the Baltic Sea region are instructive. Hence, estimated uncertainties for the projections of many variables increased. In addition to the well-known influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation, it was found that also other low-frequency modes of internal variability, such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, have profound effects on the climate of the Baltic Sea region. Challenges were also identified, such as the systematic discrepancy between future cloudiness trends in global and regional models and the difficulty of confidently attributing large observed changes in marine ecosystems to climate change. Finally, we compare our results with other coastal sea assessments, such as the North Sea Region Climate Change Assessment (NOSCCA), and find that the effects of climate change on the Baltic Sea differ from those on the North Sea, since Baltic Sea oceanography and ecosystems are very different from other coastal seas such as the North Sea. While the North Sea dynamics are dominated by tides, the Baltic Sea is characterised by brackish water, a perennial vertical stratification in the southern subbasins, and a seasonal sea ice cover in the northern subbasins.

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Section: 26(22) Zoobenthosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change in the Baltic Sea region: a summary

et al. 2022

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“…On the southwestern coast of Finland, amphipods have been replaced by Baltic clam Limecola balthica and the invasive polychaetes Marenzelleria spp., a change attributed to an increase in near-bottom temperature and fluctuations in salinity and oxygen (Rousi et al, 2013). Variations of zoobenthos in the Åland archipelago during 1983-2012 were associated with a salinity decline (Snickars et al, 2015), and effects related to climate change have acted as drivers for the long-term progression of zoobenthic communities (Rousi et al, 2019;Weigel et al, 2015;Ehrnsten et al, 2020).…”

Section: Zoobenthosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region: A Summary

Meier

Kniebusch

Dieterich

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Based on the Baltic Earth Assessment Reports of this thematic issue in Earth System Dynamics and recent peer-reviewed literature, current knowledge about the effects of global warming on past and future changes in climate of the Baltic Sea region is summarized and assessed. The study is an update of the Second Assessment of Climate Change (BACC II) published in 2015 and focusses on the atmosphere, land, cryosphere, ocean, sediments and the terrestrial and marine biosphere. Based on the summaries of the recent knowledge gained in paleo-, historical and future regional climate research, we find that the main conclusions from earlier assessments remain still valid. However, new long-term, homogenous observational records, e.g. for Scandinavian glacier inventories, sea-level driven saltwater inflows, so-called Major Baltic Inflows, and phytoplankton species distribution and new scenario simulations with improved models, e.g. for glaciers, lake ice and marine food web, have become available. In many cases, uncertainties can now be better estimated than before, because more models can be included in the ensembles, especially for the Baltic Sea. With the help of coupled models, feedbacks between several components of the Earth System have been studied and multiple driver studies were performed, e.g. projections of the food web that include fisheries, eutrophication and climate change. New data sets and projections have led to a revised understanding of changes in some variables such as salinity. Furthermore, it has become evident that natural variability, in particular for the ocean on multidecadal time scales, is greater than previously estimated, challenging our ability to detect observed and projected changes in climate. In this context, the first paleoclimate simulations regionalized for the Baltic Sea region are instructive. Hence, estimated uncertainties for the projections of many variables increased. In addition to the well-known influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation, it was found that also other low-frequency modes of internal variability, such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, have profound effects on the climate of the Baltic Sea region. Challenges were also identified, such as the systematic discrepancy between future cloudiness trends in global and regional models and the difficulty of confidently attributing large observed changes in marine ecosystems to climate change. Finally, we compare our results with other coastal sea assessments, such as the North Sea Region Climate Change Assessment (NOSCCA) and find that the effects of climate change on the Baltic Sea differ from those on the North Sea, since Baltic Sea oceanography and ecosystems are very different from other coastal seas such as the North Sea. While the North Sea dynamics is dominated by tides, the Baltic Sea is characterized by brackish water, a perennial vertical stratification in the southern sub-basins and a seasonal sea ice cover in the northern sub-basins.

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“…Benthic Our results indicate that food webs in the higher salinity basin Skagerrak were more affected than the less saline basins, and it is likely that species adapted to the physiological stresses of the Baltic Sea brackish water environment are also resilient to additional correlated pressures, such as pH fluctuations and high seasonality (Rousi et al, 2019). We recognize that salinity is correlated with a number of other factors in the Baltic Sea (species richness and temperature), and the positive network complexity-salinity relationship seen here will not be necessarily true in all systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Temporal and spatial changes in benthic invertebrate trophic networks along a taxonomic richness gradient

Garrison

Nordström

Albertsson

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Species interactions underlie most ecosystem functions and are important for understanding ecosystem changes. Representing one type of species interaction, trophic networks were constructed from biodiversity monitoring data and known trophic links to assess how ecosystems have changed over time. The Baltic Sea is subject to many anthropogenic pressures, and low species diversity makes it an ideal candidate for determining how pressures change food webs. In this study, we used benthic monitoring data for 20 years (1980–1989 and 2010–2019) from the Swedish coast of the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak to investigate changes in benthic invertebrate trophic interactions. We constructed food webs and calculated fundamental food web metrics evaluating network horizontal and vertical diversity, as well as stability that were compared over space and time. Our results show that the west coast of Sweden (Skagerrak) suffered a reduction in benthic invertebrate biodiversity by 32% between the 1980s and 2010s, and that the number of links, generality of predators, and vulnerability of prey have been significantly reduced. The other basins (Bothnian Sea, Baltic Proper, and Bornholm Basin) do not show any significant changes in species richness or consistent significant trends in any food web metrics investigated, demonstrating resilience at a lower species diversity. The decreased complexity of the Skagerrak food webs indicates vulnerability to further perturbations and pressures should be limited as much as possible to ensure continued ecosystem functions.

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Brackish-Water Benthic Fauna Under Fluctuating Environmental Conditions: The Role of Eutrophication, Hypoxia, and Global Change

Cited by 18 publications

References 44 publications

Climate change in the Baltic Sea region: a summary

Climate change in the Baltic Sea region: a summary

Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Region: A Summary

Temporal and spatial changes in benthic invertebrate trophic networks along a taxonomic richness gradient

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