Long term changes in ice and discharge regime of rivers in the Baltic region in relation to climatic variability

Abstract

The river ice regime is considered a sensitive indicator of climate change and within this study long term changes (in case of River Daugava starting from 1530, but for other studied rivers starting from first half of twentieth century) river ice regimes in the Baltic region have been studied. The ice cover duration on the rivers (17 rivers) in the Baltic countries and Belarus has decreased during the recent decades. In addition to this, long term observational records of ice break on the rivers of the studied region exhibit a pattern of periodic changes in the intensity of ice regime. Both the ice regime and the seasonal river discharge are shown to be strongly influenced by large-scale atmospheric circulation processes over North Atlantic that manifests through close correlation with North Atlantic Oscillation index.

Predator transitory spillover induces trophic cascades in ecological sinks

“…S3), the latter likely subsidizing the semienclosed GoR ecosystem with nutrients (27). River runoff in GoR is eventually driven by large-scale climatic processes acting on precipitation and ice dynamics (28). The impact of top-down forcing on the summer phytoplankton biomass was also indirectly evidenced by the Secchi depth, an indicator of water transparency, which covaried positively with the copepods (Fig.…”

Climate Change and Resilience Value of Mussel Farming for the Baltic Sea

“…Similar studies on the Baltic Sea were carried out more recently (e.g. Eckersten et al 2001;Pettersson, 2003;Arrheimer et al, 2005, Blenckner et al 2007; Lewan and Wallin, 2007;Ulén and Weyhenmeyer, 2007;Zillén, 2008;Klavins et al 2009;Möllman et al, 2009). In spite of this relatively early concern, the environmental economics literature on climatic change and water quality management is scarce and is mostly applied to water supply management and/or estimation of impacts on agricultural and other water dependent industries (Mendelsohn, 2003;Lacroix, 2005).…”

“…There are today a considerable number of studies on climate change effects related to the Baltic Sea (e.g. Eckersten et al 2001;Pettersson, 2003;Arrheimer et al, 2005, Blenckner et al 2007Lewan and Wallin, 2007;Ulén and Weyhenmeyer, 2007;Zillén, 2008;Klavins et al 2009;Möllman et al, 2009). A common focus of these studies has been to estimate the changes in winter North Atlantic Oscialltions on climate and associated impacts on water temperature, ice conditions, plankton phonology, and nutrient discharges on lakes and water sheds in the Baltic Sea drainage basin and in other parts of Europe.…”

Recent Change—Atmosphere

“…GWL are defined in detail by Hess and Brezowski (1952)and Kyselý and Huth (2006) may have caused additional coastal erosion along the eastern margin of the Baltic Sea (see Chap. 20), as well as changes in other parameters in the region (Klavinš et al 2007(Klavinš et al , 2009Valdmann et al 2008;Draveniece 2009;Rivza and Brunina 2009;Avotniece et al 2010;Klavinš and Rodinov 2010;Lizuma et al 2010). …”