Oceanographic regional climate projections for the Baltic Sea until 2100

Abstract

Abstract. The Baltic Sea, located in northern Europe, is a semi-enclosed, shallow and tideless sea with seasonal sea-ice cover in its northern sub-basins. Its long water residence time contributes to oxygen depletion in the bottom water of its southern sub-basins. In this study, recently performed scenario simulations for the Baltic Sea including marine biogeochemistry were analysed and compared with earlier published projections. Specifically, dynamical downscaling using a regionally coupled atmosphere–ocean climate model was used to regionalise four global Earth system models. However, as the regional climate model does not include components representing terrestrial and marine biogeochemistry, an additional catchment and a coupled physical–biogeochemical model for the Baltic Sea were included. The scenario simulations take the impact of various global sea level rise scenarios into account. According to the projections, compared to the present climate, higher water temperatures, a shallower mixed layer with a sharper thermocline during summer, less sea-ice cover and greater mixing in the northern Baltic Sea during winter can be expected. Both the frequency and the duration of marine heat waves will increase significantly, in particular in the coastal zone of the southern Baltic Sea (except in regions with frequent upwellings). Nonetheless, due to the uncertainties in the projections regarding regional winds, the water cycle and the global sea level rise, robust and statistically significant salinity changes could not be identified. The impact of a changing climate on biogeochemical cycling is predicted to be considerable but still smaller than that of plausible nutrient input changes. Implementing the proposed Baltic Sea Action Plan, a nutrient input abatement plan for the entire catchment area, would result in a significantly improved ecological status of the Baltic Sea, including reductions in the size of the hypoxic area also in a future climate, which in turn would increase the resilience of the Baltic Sea against anticipated climate change. While our findings regarding changes in heat-cycle variables mainly confirm earlier scenario simulations, they differ substantially from earlier projections of salinity and biogeochemical cycles, due to differences in experimental setups and in input scenarios for bioavailable nutrients.

The Baltic Sea model inter-comparison project BMIP – a platform for model development, evaluation, and uncertainty assessment

“…The weak imprint of MHWs in the second half of the 1970s and 1980s might be related to the extraordinarily low North Atlantic SSTs recorded during those years (Kushnir et al 1994). In all of the models there was a trend toward more extended MHWs after ~1990, consistent with the climate warming trend over that same time (e.g., Dieterich et al, 2019;Gröger et al 2019;Meier et al, 2022;Placke et al, 2021;Dutheil et al, 2021). Before ~2000, MHWs were rarely above the moderate class whereas strong MHWs (class II)…”

Depletion of Oxygen in the Bothnian Sea Since the Mid-1950s

“…Biogeochemical modeling may help establish a seasonal cycle of oxygen and other important geochemical constituents of the basin. Modeling is widely used to examine the future evolution of the physical and biogeochemical components of the global and regional climate systems (e.g., Meier et al, 2011;Meier et al, 2022a) and to separate the effect of climate change from natural variations (e.g., Meier et al, 2021b). Thus, a synergistic combination of modeling and extensive observational approaches should be utilized in future studies to refine the effects of climate change in the Bothnian Sea.…”

Combined effect of salinity and temperature on copepod reproduction and oxidative stress in brackish-water environment

“…The sea surface temperature (SST) in the Baltic Sea is predicted to increase by approximately 2°C-3°C by the end of the century in future climate projections (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), while the frequency and duration of heatwaves are increasing (Meier et al, 2022). During the last 85 years, the SST has already increased by 1°C (Merkouriadi and Leppäranta, 2014) and a continuous decrease in sea surface salinity (SSS) has occurred in the Gulf of Finland (Lehmann et al, 2022).…”