Image: Robin Bergman
Research project This project will determine the effect of a browning Baltic Sea on the primary production of aquatic plants and marine seaweeds, with implications for future underwater habitat provision.
The main objective of this project is to investigate how brownification influences the primary production and ecological functions of key benthic primary producers in the Baltic Sea. To achieve this, we will combine physicochemical characterizations of the water column, ecological surveys of the coastal benthos and photophysiological measurements of the major habitat-forming aquatic plants and marine seaweeds along a latitudinal gradient of brownification through the Baltic Sea. With these data we will then aim to project how primary production may change in the future as brownification continues to intensify.
The project is financed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the strategic research programme EcoChange.
