HELCOM MINUTS 27.5.2019 Seabased Outputs WP Binding Phosphorus WP - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

HELCOM MINUTS

27.5.2019

Seabased Outputs

WP Guidelines Practical Guidelines on seabased measures WP Marine Habitat Bank Concept of Marine Habitat Bank Ecosystem restoration measures for developing and testing the Concept WP Sustainability Sustainability assessment for seabased measures WP Binding Phosphorus into sediment Phosphorus load reduction by binding soluble phosphorus in bottom sediment in pilot areas WP Sediment removal Phosphorus load reduction from the sediment in pilot areas

Project Seabased

• SWE:
• Stockholm University, DEEP
• County Administrative Board of

Östergötland

• FI:
• The Government of Åland
• The Centre for Economic

Development, Transport and the Environment for Southwest Finland

• The Åland Fish farmers’ Association
• John Nurminen Foundation (Lead

Partner)

• Duration: 3/2018 – 2/2021

Seabased pilots

• Binding phosphorus into sediment with marl (merkel)
• Two sites in Sweden
• One site in Finland
• Removing top layer sediment
• 1-3 sites in Finland
• Management fishing
• Stickleback fishing at the Åland Islands
• Irrigation of agricultural fields with nutrient-rich

bottom waters at the Åland Islands

• Site selection:
• Full anoxia, preferably reduced land-based load
• Availability of earlier monitoring

information/data

• Semi-enclosed coastal areas

Field work – pilot exploration

Sediment and water samples Acoustic depth survey

Sustainability

• Different aspects of sustainability
• Ecological and environmental
• Economic
• Social
• Legislative
• Risk assessment and methods
• Thorough compilation of existing

information on the environment

• Familiarization to the pilot method
• Sediment and water analyses before

and after the pilots

• Local information events,

communication with local people

• Legal consultation for the permit

process

• Expected results
• Awareness of the challenges and

potential related to sediment removal

• Guidelines for implementing

seabased measures in a sustainable way

Risk assessment framework for seabased measures

• Gathering top-level scientists in Baltic Sea marine

ecology and geochemical processes in the marine environment to identify effects (positive and negative)

• f seabased measures on biological, chemical and

hydrological processes.

• Note: focus on natural science based facts!
• Assessing the scale, time and significance of different
• impacts. Impacts of no action also included.
• Conclusions:
• What are the most significant risks?
• Weighing ecosystem risks against ecosystem benefits
• What do we know, where are the knowledge gaps, and

which knowledge gaps prevent decision making – how to focus future research?

• Which impacts are acceptable and which are not - no-go

–situations?

• Consensus and dissensus: on what we can agree and on

what we have a disagreement?

Lessons learned so far

• Include proper monitoring – prior and after -

and scientific knowledge in the pilots

• Pilot site selection!
• Resources for monitoring
• Knowledge within the project group
• Without quantitative information on effects,

cost-effectiveness cannot be assessed

• Methods are not technically mature for large

scale implementation in the open sea area

• … neither social acceptability and scientific

consensus

www.seabasedmeasures.eu