Screening the East, Probing the Past: The Baltic Sea in Contemporary German Cinema

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Alexandra Ludewig

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, unification, and the subsequent reinventionof the nation, German filmmakers have revisited theircountry’s cinematic traditions with a view to placing themselves creativelyin the tradition of its intellectual and artistic heritage. One ofthe legacies that has served as a point of a new departure has beenthe Heimatfilm, or homeland film. As a genre it is renowned for itsrestorative stance, as it often features dialect and the renunciation ofcurrent topicality, advocates traditional gender roles, has antimodernovertones of rural, pastoral, often alpine, images, and expressesa longing for premodern times, for “the good old days” that supposedlystill exist away from the urban centres. The Nazis used Heimatfilms in an effort “to idealize ‘Bauerntum’ as the site of desirable traditionsand stereotyped the foreign (most often the urban) as thebreeding ground for moral decay.”

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 133-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aare Verliin ◽  
Lauri Saks ◽  
Roland Svirgsden ◽  
Markus Vetemaa ◽  
Mehis Rohtla ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 384-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Hünicke ◽  
Jürg Luterbacher ◽  
Andreas Pauling ◽  
Eduardo Zorita

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gustafsson ◽  
Mathilde Hagens ◽  
Xiaole Sun ◽  
Daniel C. Reed ◽  
Christoph Humborg ◽  
...  

Abstract. Enhanced release of alkalinity from the seafloor, principally driven by anaerobic degradation of organic matter under low-oxygen conditions and associated secondary redox reactions, can increase the carbon dioxide (CO2) buffering capacity of seawater and therefore oceanic CO2 uptake. The Baltic Sea has undergone severe changes in oxygenation state and total alkalinity (TA) over the past decades. The link between these concurrent changes has not yet been investigated in detail. A recent system-wide TA budget constructed for the past 50 years using BALTSEM, a coupled physical-biogeochemical model for the whole Baltic Sea area, revealed an unknown TA source. Here we use BALTSEM in combination with observational data and one-dimensional reactive transport modelling of sedimentary processes in the Fårö Deep, a deep Baltic Sea basin, to test whether sulfate reduction coupled to iron (Fe) sulfide burial can explain the missing TA source in the Baltic Proper. We calculated that this burial can account for 26 % of the missing source in this basin, with the remaining TA possibly originating from unknown river inputs or submarine groundwater discharge. We also show that temporal variability in the input of Fe to the sediments since the 1970s drives changes in sulfur burial in the Fårö Deep, suggesting that Fe availability is the ultimate limiting factor for TA generation under anoxic conditions. The implementation of projected climate change and two nutrient load scenarios for the 21st century in BALTSEM shows that reducing nutrient loads will improve deep water oxygen conditions, but at the expense of lower surface water TA concentrations, CO2 buffering capacities and faster acidification. When these changes additionally lead to a decrease in Fe inputs to the sediment of the deep basins, anaerobic TA generation will be reduced even further, thus exacerbating acidification. This work highlights that Fe dynamics play a key role in the release of TA from sediments where Fe sulfide formation is limited by Fe availability, as exemplified for the Baltic Sea. Moreover, it demonstrates that burial of Fe sulfides should be included in TA budgets of low oxygen basins.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralf Weisse ◽  
Inga Dailidiene ◽  
Birgit Hünicke ◽  
Kimmo Kahma ◽  
Kristine Madsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. There are a large number of geophysical processes affecting sea level dynamics and coastal erosion in the Baltic Sea region. These processes operate on a large range of spatial and temporal scales and are observed in many other coastal regions worldwide. Together with the outstanding number of long data records, this makes the Baltic Sea a unique laboratory for advancing our knowledge on interactions between processes steering sea level and erosion in a climate change context. Processes contributing to sea level dynamics and coastal erosion in the Baltic Sea include the still ongoing visco-elastic response of the Earth to the last deglaciation, contributions from global and North Atlantic mean sea level changes, or from wind waves affecting erosion and sediment transport along the subsiding southern Baltic Sea coast. Other examples are storm surges, seiches, or meteotsunamis contributing primarily to sea level extremes. All such processes have undergone considerable variations and changes in the past. For example, over the past about 50 years, the Baltic absolute (geocentric) mean sea level rose at a rate slightly larger than the global average. In the northern parts, due to vertical land movements, relative sea level decreased. Sea level extremes are strongly linked to variability and changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulation. Patterns and mechanisms contributing to erosion and accretion strongly depend on hydrodynamic conditions and their variability. For large parts of the sedimentary shores of the Baltic Sea, the wave climate and the angle at which the waves approach the nearshore are the dominant factors, and coastline changes are highly sensitive to even small variations in these driving forces. Consequently, processes contributing to Baltic sea level dynamics and coastline change are expected to vary and to change in the future leaving their imprint on future Baltic sea level and coastline change and variability. Because of the large number of contributing processes, their relevance for understanding global figures, and the outstanding data availability, we argue that global sea level research and research on coastline changes may greatly benefit from research undertaken in the Baltic Sea.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gustafsson ◽  
Mathilde Hagens ◽  
Xiaole Sun ◽  
Daniel C. Reed ◽  
Christoph Humborg ◽  
...  

Abstract. Enhanced release of alkalinity from the seafloor, principally driven by anaerobic degradation of organic matter under low-oxygen conditions and associated secondary redox reactions, can increase the carbon dioxide (CO2) buffering capacity of seawater and therefore oceanic CO2 uptake. The Baltic Sea has undergone severe changes in oxygenation state and total alkalinity (TA) over the past decades. The link between these concurrent changes has not yet been investigated in detail. A recent system-wide TA budget constructed for the past 50 years using BALTSEM, a coupled physical–biogeochemical model for the whole Baltic Sea area revealed an unknown TA source. Here we use BALTSEM in combination with observational data and one-dimensional reactive-transport modeling of sedimentary processes in the Fårö Deep, a deep Baltic Sea basin, to test whether sulfate (SO42-) reduction coupled to iron (Fe) sulfide burial can explain the missing TA source in the Baltic Proper. We calculated that this burial can account for up to 26 % of the missing source in this basin, with the remaining TA possibly originating from unknown river inputs or submarine groundwater discharge. We also show that temporal variability in the input of Fe to the sediments since the 1970s drives changes in sulfur (S) burial in the Fårö Deep, suggesting that Fe availability is the ultimate limiting factor for TA generation under anoxic conditions. The implementation of projected climate change and two nutrient load scenarios for the 21st century in BALTSEM shows that reducing nutrient loads will improve deep water oxygen conditions, but at the expense of lower surface water TA concentrations, CO2 buffering capacities and faster acidification. When these changes additionally lead to a decrease in Fe inputs to the sediment of the deep basins, anaerobic TA generation will be reduced even further, thus exacerbating acidification. This work highlights that Fe dynamics plays a key role in the release of TA from sediments where Fe sulfide formation is limited by Fe availability, as exemplified by the Baltic Sea. Moreover, it demonstrates that burial of Fe sulfides should be included in TA budgets of low-oxygen basins.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 160416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Casini ◽  
Filip Käll ◽  
Martin Hansson ◽  
Maris Plikshs ◽  
Tatjana Baranova ◽  
...  

Investigating the factors regulating fish condition is crucial in ecology and the management of exploited fish populations. The body condition of cod ( Gadus morhua ) in the Baltic Sea has dramatically decreased during the past two decades, with large implications for the fishery relying on this resource. Here, we statistically investigated the potential drivers of the Baltic cod condition during the past 40 years using newly compiled fishery-independent biological data and hydrological observations. We evidenced a combination of different factors operating before and after the ecological regime shift that occurred in the Baltic Sea in the early 1990s. The changes in cod condition related to feeding opportunities, driven either by density-dependence or food limitation, along the whole period investigated and to the fivefold increase in the extent of hypoxic areas in the most recent 20 years. Hypoxic areas can act on cod condition through different mechanisms related directly to species physiology, or indirectly to behaviour and trophic interactions. Our analyses found statistical evidence for an effect of the hypoxia-induced habitat compression on cod condition possibly operating via crowding and density-dependent processes. These results furnish novel insights into the population dynamics of Baltic Sea cod that can aid the management of this currently threatened population.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Florian Weinberger ◽  
Sophie Steinhagen ◽  
Dmitry F. Afanasyev ◽  
Rolf Karez

Abstract Combined genetic, morphological and ontogenetic observations show that the circumarctic boreal green algal macrophyte Kornmannia leptoderma has expanded its distribution range into the Baltic Sea, on a German coastal section of 220 km length. The species is also again (or still) established at its former extreme southern distribution limit in the North Sea, the German island of Helgoland, where it has not been detected during the last four decades. Macroscopic visible sporophytes of K. leptoderma are nowadays present in the Baltic Sea and at Helgoland from February to September, while they were in the past only detected from February to May at Helgoland. This capacity for formation of sporophytes in summer correlates with the circumstance that K. leptoderma from the Baltic Sea can complete its life cycle at 15°C while several studies conducted decades ago with material from Helgoland and from Pacific coasts consistently reported an inhibition of the algal gametogenesis at temperatures that exceed 12°C. Possibly K. leptoderma has undergone adaptations that facilitate its spread into warmer environments, unless the Kornmannia present in the Baltic Sea and on Helgoland today represents a newly introduced cryptic species.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 3754-3766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conny Lenz ◽  
Tom Jilbert ◽  
Daniel J. Conley ◽  
Caroline P. Slomp

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Groeneveld ◽  
Helena L. Filipsson ◽  
William E. N. Austin ◽  
Kate Darling ◽  
David McCarthy ◽  
...  

Abstract. Current climate and environmental changes strongly affect shallow marine and coastal areas like the Baltic Sea. This has created a need for a context to understand the severity and potential outcomes of such changes. The context can be derived from paleoenvironmental records during periods when comparable events happened in the past. In this study, we explore how varying bottom water conditions across a large hydrographic gradient in the Baltic Sea affect benthic foraminiferal faunal assemblages and the geochemical composition of their calcite tests. We have conducted both morphological and molecular analyses of the faunas and we evaluate how the chemical signatures of the bottom waters are recorded in the tests of several species of benthic foraminifera. We focus on two locations, one in the Kattegat (western Baltic Sea) and one in Hanö Bay (southern Baltic Sea). We show that seawater Mn∕Ca, Mg∕Ca, and Ba∕Ca (Mn∕Casw, Mg∕Casw, and Ba∕Casw) variations are mainly controlled by dissolved oxygen concentration and salinity. Their respective imprints on the foraminiferal calcite demonstrate the potential of Mn∕Ca as a proxy for hypoxic conditions, and Ba∕Ca as a proxy for salinity in enclosed basins such as the Baltic Sea. The traditional use of Mg∕Ca as a proxy to reconstruct past seawater temperatures is not recommended in the region, as it may be overprinted by the large variations in salinity (specifically on Bulimina marginata), Mg∕Casw, and possibly also the carbonate system. Salinity is the main factor controlling the faunal assemblages: a much more diverse fauna occurs in the higher-salinity (∼32) Kattegat than in the low-salinity (∼15) Hanö Bay. Molecular identification shows that only Elphidium clavatum occurs at both locations, but other genetic types of both genera Elphidium and Ammonia are restricted to either low- or high-salinity locations. The combination of foraminiferal geochemistry and environmental parameters demonstrates that in a highly variable setting like the Baltic Sea, it is possible to separate different environmental impacts on the foraminiferal assemblages and therefore use Mn∕Ca, Mg∕Ca, and Ba∕Ca to reconstruct how specific conditions may have varied in the past.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1679
Author(s):  
Tomasz Wolski ◽  
Bernard Wiśniewski

Understanding the characteristics of storm surges is especially important in the context of ongoing climate changes, which often lead to catastrophic events in the coastal zones of seas and oceans. For this reason, this paper presents the characteristics of the Baltic Sea storm surges and trends in their occurrences through the past 60 years. The study material was based on hourly sea level readings, spanning the years 1961–2020, retrieved from 45 Baltic Sea tide gauges, as well as air pressure and wind field data. Owing to the analysis and visualization of storm situations, two main types of storm surges were identified and characterized: a surge driven by wind and a surge driven by subpressure associated with an active low pressure area. This paper also discusses a third, mixed type of storm surge. Further analyses have indicated that through the past 60 years in the Baltic Sea, the duration of high sea level has increased by 1/3, the average number of storm surges has increased from 3.1 to 5.5 per year, and the maximum annual sea levels have increased—with a trend value of 0.28 cm/year. These processes, also observed in other marine basins, provide strong evidence for contemporary climate change.


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