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Controlling Eutrophication in the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat

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Eutrophication: causes, consequences and control

Abstract

The basic aim of this work was to motivate a realistic strategy to combat marine eutrophication in north-eastern Europe. Data from the Kattegat (located between Sweden and Denmark) were used to illustrate basic principles and processes related to nutrient fluxes. We have applied a process-based mass-balance model, CoastMab, to the Kattegat and quantified the nutrient fluxes to, within, and from the system. Several scenarios aiming to decrease eutrophication in the Kattegat have been modeled. By far the most dominating nutrient fluxes to the bioproductive surface-water layer in the Kattegat come from the south (from the Baltic Proper), which should be evident just by comparing the catchment area for the Baltic Sea, including the Baltic States, parts of Russia, Belarus and Germany, Poland, Finland, and Sweden in relation to the relatively small catchment area draining directly into the Kattegat (from SW Sweden and parts of Denmark). The dominating deep-water fluxes come from the north (from the Skagerrak). The strategy that one should ask for should concur with some evident practical constraints, e.g., it is not realistic to reduce all anthropogenic P or N discharges. For countries where major investments in nutrient reductions have already been made, it will become increasingly expensive to reduce the remaining tons. In the “optimal” scenario discussed in this work, about 10,000 t year–1 of P is being reduced and also N reductions that would lower the N concentration in the Baltic Proper by 10%. The cost for this “optimal” strategy was estimated at 200–420 million euro year–1 given that the focus will be on the most cost-effective P reductions connected to the most polluted estuaries and coastal areas. To achieve cost-effectiveness, one can assume that most of this would go to upgrading urban sewage treatment in the Baltic States, Poland, and other former East Bloc countries. The costs to reduce 15,016 t year–1 of P and 133,170 t year–1 of N according to the HELCOM strategy (agreed upon by the Baltic Sea states in November 2007) would be 3,100 million euro year–1. That is, 2,680–2,900 million euro year–1 higher than the “optimal” strategy advocated in this work.

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Acknowledgments

Ingemar Cato, SGU, has been very helpful and freely supplied sediment data on nutrient concentrations. Pia Andersson, SHMI, has also been most helpful in supplying the necessary water chemical data, data on tributary discharges, and atmospheric nitrogen deposition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Lars Håkanson & Andreas C. Bryhn

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  1. Lars Håkanson
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  2. Andreas C. Bryhn
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Correspondence to Andreas C. Bryhn .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202 002, India

    Abid A. Ansari

  2. Engineering & Biotechnology, Plant Molecular Biology Grop, International Centre for Genetic, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi, 110 067, India

    Sarvajeet Singh Gill

  3. , Department of Natural Resources Conserva, University of Massachusetts, 326 Holdsworth Hall, Amherst, 01003-9285, USA

    Guy R. Lanza

  4. , Department of Biology, Texas State University, University Drive 601, San Marcos, 78666, Texas, USA

    Walter Rast

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Håkanson, L., Bryhn, A.C. (2010). Controlling Eutrophication in the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat. In: Ansari, A., Singh Gill, S., Lanza, G., Rast, W. (eds) Eutrophication: causes, consequences and control. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9625-8_2

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