Pine pollen grains in coastal waters of the Baltic Sea

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Pawlik ◽  
Dariusz Ficek

AbstractMeasurements relating to a yellow deposit covering large areas of the Baltic Sea in spring are reported. Analysis of water samples showed it to be of terrestrial origin and to consist mainly of pine pollen grains. The equivalent spherical diameter (ESD) of these grains ranged from 29.1 to 78.4 μm, with a maximum between 47.7 and 56.3 μm. Surface water concentrations of pollen in the coastal zone near Ustka showed that its proportion in the total suspended particulate matter (SPM) might be as high as 30-40%. Such high surface water concentrations of hitherto neglected substances critical to water color formation can give rise to serious errors in remote measurements of water composition and properties.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Reeder ◽  
Carolin Löscher

<p>The Baltic Sea is characterised as a semi-enclosed brackish Sea that has experienced increased eutrophication, hypoxia, and increased temperature over the last ~100 years making Baltic Sea one of the most severely impacted oceanic environment by climate change. Biological fixation of dinitrogen gas (N<sub>2</sub>) is an essential process to make atmospheric N<sub>2</sub> available for marine life. This process is carried out by specialised organisms called diazotrophs and is catalysed by the energetic-consuming enzyme nitrogenase. Nitrogenases exist in three subtypes depending on their metal cofactors, (1) the most common molybdenum-dependent (Nif), (2) the vanadium-dependent (Vnf) and (3) the Iron-Iron-dependent nitrogenase (Anf). To date, the effect of climate change on those three enzyme subtypes and their potential role a future ocean is yet to be explored. The predicted ongoing oxygen loss in the ocean may limit Mo's availability and trigger a shift from the abundant Nif-type nitrogenase to Vnf or Anf and, therefore, a potential shift in the diazotrophic community. This study explored the climate change-related pressures on N<sub>2</sub> fixation and the diazotrophic community based on nifH and vnf/anfD amplicons. At the time of sampling, we found a post-bloom high-nutrient low-chlorophyll situation. Cyanobacterial groups, Nodularia and UCYN-A, dominated the diazotrophic community and showed a horizontal where UCYN-A were the dominant fixers at 20 m. Based on alternative nitrogenases amplicons, Rhodopseudomonas was the dominating microbe in the surface water. This paper presents the first hint of active nitrogenases in surface water and further establish UCYN-A as a significant player in Baltic Sea primary production.</p>


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 870-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Omstedt ◽  
Erik Gustafsson ◽  
Karin Wesslander

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (29) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Karczewska-Golec ◽  
Maja Kochanowska-Łyżen ◽  
Magdalena Bałut ◽  
Arkadiusz Piotrowski ◽  
Piotr Golec ◽  
...  

We present here the draft genome sequence of Paracoccus sp. strain 228, isolated from the Gulf of Gdańsk in the southern part of the Baltic Sea. The assembly contains 4,131,609 bp in 32 scaffolds.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 10829-10858 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Stålnacke ◽  
A. Pengerud ◽  
A. Vassiljev ◽  
E. Smedberg ◽  
C.-M. Mörth ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this paper, we estimate the surface water retention of nitrogen (N) in all the 117 drainage basins to the Baltic Sea with the use of a statistical model (MESAW) for source apportionment of riverine loads of pollutants. Our results show that the MESAW model was able to estimate the N load at the river mouth of 88 Baltic Sea rivers, for which we had observed data, with a sufficient degree of precision and accuracy. The estimated retention parameters were also statistically significant. Our results show that around 380 000 t of N are annually retained in surface waters draining to the Baltic Sea. The total annual riverine load from the 117 basins to the Baltic Sea was estimated to 570 000 t of N, giving a total surface water N retention of around 40%. In terms of absolute retention values, three major river basins account for 50% of the total retention in the 117 basins; i.e. around 104 000 t of N is retained in Neva, 55 000 t in Vistula and 32 000 t in Oder. The largest retention was found in river basins with a high percentage of lakes as indicated by a strong relationship between N retention (%) and share of lake area in the river drainage areas. For example in Göta älv, we estimated a total N retention of 72%, whereof 67% of the retention occurred in the lakes of that drainage area (Lake Vänern primarily). The obtained results will hopefully enable the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) to refine the nutrient load targets in the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), as well as to better identify cost-efficient measures to reduce nutrient loadings to the Baltic Sea.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Kuss ◽  
Siegfried Krüger ◽  
Johann Ruickoldt ◽  
Klaus-Peter Wlost

Abstract. Marginal seas are directly subjected to anthropogenic and natural influences from land in addition to receiving inputs from the atmosphere and open ocean. Together these lead to pronounced gradients and strong dynamic changes. However, in the case of mercury emissions from these seas, estimates often fail to adequately account for the spatial and temporal variability of the elemental mercury concentration in surface water (Hg0wat). In this study, a method to measure Hg0wat at high resolution was devised and subsequently validated. The better-resolved Hg0wat dataset, consisting of about one measurement per nautical mile, yielded insight into the sea's small-scale variability and thus improved the quantification of the sea's Hg0 emissions, a major source of atmospheric mercury. Research campaigns in the Baltic Sea were carried out between 2011 and 2015 during which Hg0 both in surface water and in ambient air were measured. For the former, two types of equilibrators were used. A membrane equilibrator enabled continuous equilibration and a bottle equilibrator assured that equilibrium was reached for validation. The measurements were combined with data obtained in the Baltic Sea in 2006 from a bottle equilibrator only. The Hg0 sea-air flux was newly calculated with the combined dataset based on current knowledge of the Hg0 Schmidt number, Henry's law constant, and a widely used gas-exchange transfer velocity parameterization. By using a newly developed pump-CTD with increased pumping capability in the Hg0 equilibrator measurements, Hg0wat could also be characterized in deeper water layers. A process study carried out near the Swedish island Øland in August 2015 showed that the upwelling of Hg0-depleted water contributed to Hg0 emissions of the Baltic Sea. However, a delay of a few days after contact between the upwelled water and light was apparently necessary before the biotic and abiotic transformations of ionic to volatile Hg0 produced a distinct sea-air Hg0 concentration gradient. This study clearly showed spatial, seasonal, and interannual variability in the Hg0 sea-air flux of the Baltic Sea. The average annual Hg0 emission was 0.90 ± 0.18 Mg for the Baltic Proper and to 1.73 ± 0.32 Mg for the entire Baltic Sea, which is about half the amount entrained by atmospheric deposition. A comparison of our results with the Hg0 sea-air fluxes determined in the Mediterranean Sea and in marginal seas in East Asia were to some extent similar but they partly differed in terms of the deviations in the amount and seasonality of the flux.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 981-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Stålnacke ◽  
A. Pengerud ◽  
A. Vassiljev ◽  
E. Smedberg ◽  
C.-M. Mörth ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this paper, we estimate the surface water retention of nitrogen (N) in all the 117 drainage basins to the Baltic Sea with the use of a statistical model (MESAW) for source apportionment of riverine loads of pollutants. Our results show that the MESAW model was able to estimate the N load at the river mouth of 88 Baltic Sea rivers, for which we had observed data, with a sufficient degree of precision and accuracy. The estimated retention parameters were also statistically significant. Our results show that around 380 000 t of N are annually retained in surface waters draining to the Baltic Sea. The total annual riverine load from the 117 basins to the Baltic Sea was estimated at 570 000 t of N, giving a total surface water N retention of around 40%. In terms of absolute retention values, three major river basins account for 50% of the total retention in the 117 basins; i.e. around 104 000 t of N are retained in Neva, 55 000 t in Vistula and 32 000 t in Oder. The largest retention was found in river basins with a high percentage of lakes as indicated by a strong relationship between N retention (%) and share of lake area in the river drainage areas. For example in Göta älv, we estimated a total N retention of 72%, whereof 67% of the retention occurred in the lakes of that drainage area (Lake Vänern primarily). The obtained results will hopefully enable the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) to refine the nutrient load targets in the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), as well as to better identify cost-efficient measures to reduce nutrient loadings to the Baltic Sea.


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