Resilient Sea
The project aims to improve the state of marine nature by rehabilitating ecologically valuable coastal bays and promoting the practical implementation of marine conservation in municipalities in Finland, Sweden, and Åland.
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Underwater biodiversity loss is worsening, and climate change poses an increasing threat to species’ habitats. The biodiversity in Baltic Sea habitats is concentrated in coastal areas, and coastal ecosystems play a major role in the nutrient cycle and in mitigating climate emissions. Thriving vegetation and bottom sediment bind nutrients and act as a carbon sink, while degraded habitats form a source of methane and no longer retain nutrients effectively.
We are improving marine biodiversity by rehabilitating coastal bays
The Resilient Sea project is rehabilitating degraded and eutrophic coastal bays and fladas along the coasts of mainland Finland, Sweden, and Åland. In practice, rehabilitation involves restricting or increasing the flow of water from the bay to more open waters, cutting reed beds in an ecologically sustainable way, and transplanting key species.
Rehabilitating coastal bays and their restoration to their natural state strengthen the ability of coastal ecosystems to bind carbon and to retain nutrients that make their way into the sea from the land. This also reduces the nutrient load in the open sea.
Like many other coastal environments, fladas and coastal lagoons have undergone major changes as a result of human activity, such as dredging and widening the inlets of fladas. Subsequently, fish are losing sufficiently sheltered and warm spawning grounds faster than new ones can form. Rehabilitating coastal bays and fladas into nursery areas for predatory fish is an effective way to strengthen their populations.
Eutrophication in the Baltic Sea has led to an increase in three-spined stickleback populations, which prey on the eggs and fry of species such as perch and pike. Adult predatory fish feed on sticklebacks, allowing zooplankton and underwater grazers such as amphipods to multiply. This in turn decreases the amount of annual filamentous algae. Large predatory fish therefore maintain healthy coastal waters.
The project is also testing aluminium treatment to bind phosphorus – which causes eutrophication – into sediments in a coastal bay in Helsinki’s marine area, and is piloting a natural-value-hectare calculation model at rehabilitation sites.
We are accelerating marine conservation efforts in municipalities
In order to effectively protect and rehabilitate underwater habitats, we must first find out where key ecological sites are located. Municipalities are not yet utilising effective measures sufficiently to protect marine nature or rehabilitate degraded areas. This is because there is a lack of resources for identifying such areas, and marine conservation has not been prioritised in decision-making or in land- and sea-use planning.
In the Resilient Sea project, we’re striving to help municipalities to implement marine conservation in practice. In collaboration with municipalities, we are supporting the mapping of underwater species and the utilisation of existing data, which will allow for identified areas of value to be better taken into consideration in land- and sea-use planning. Training in marine nature mapping and the utilisation of mapping data will be arranged for municipal decision-makers and employees, and local residents will be involved in the work at local community events.
The project will produce a guide for municipalities on identifying the most valuable marine nature sites and on conserving and considering them in land use planning.
The Resilient Sea project is funded by the European Union’s Central Baltic Programme. The County Administrative Board of Östergötland, the City of Helsinki, the Government of Åland, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU Aqua), Race for the Baltic, and Turku University of Applied Sciences are also involved in the project.
