scholarly journals Solutions for effective oil spill management in the south–eastern part of the Baltic Sea

Baltica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (special) ◽  
pp. 3-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergej Suzdalev ◽  
Saulius Gulbinskas ◽  
Vadim Sivkov ◽  
Tatiana Bukanova

The Baltic Sea is facing exceptionally intensive marine traffic. Oil products in addition to other cargo types are being transported in this marine area. Therefore, the risk of potential oil pollution is very high. Although, the Baltic Sea has not experienced catastrophic oil spills, there have been spills causing serious environmental damage in the region. Construction of oil terminals and planned growth of Russian oil export through Baltic Sea ports along with the operation of large oil enterprises and oil drilling platforms make maritime safety a priority task for the Baltic Sea region. The publications collected in present Baltica Journal Special Issue set sights on the improvement of oil spill management in the South–Eastern Baltic Sea as well as stimulate the appearance of new transnational response agreements in the region.

Baltica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (special) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kileso ◽  
Boris Chubarenko ◽  
Petras Zemlys ◽  
Igor Kuzmenko

The state-of-art in oil spill modelling methods is summarized, focusing on development since 2000. Some recommendations for possible application of these methods to the south–eastern part of the Baltic Sea are prepared. Particular attention is paid on the methods of parameterization of volume of oil spill and calculation of advection of the oil spills. Consideration is also given to methods used in oil weathering models.


Baltica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (special) ◽  
pp. 9-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Bulycheva ◽  
Igor Kuzmenko ◽  
Vadim Sivkov

The annual average features of the spatial distribution of oil pollution at the sea surface in the south–eastern part of the Baltic Sea were determined for the first time. It was shown that the most polluted areas are the seawaters west of the Sambian Peninsula and Vistula Spit, including the coastal zone that is connected to the Baltiysk, Gdansk, and Gdynia ports. The sea surface near the oilfield Kravtsovskoye D-6 (Russia) and oil terminal Būtingė (Lithuania), as well as the coastal zone near the Curonian Spit, do not suffer from oil pollution. A lower estimation of the annual average amount of oil products at the sea surface was performed. The lack of correlation between the location of the oil slicks and main navigation routes by Automatic Identification System (AIS) was explained by the infrequent but large spillages from ships that occur outside of the main traffic lanes. A significant contribution to the oil pollution of the sea surface from nonconventional ships not equipped with AIS was discovered.


Baltica ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitrij Gerok ◽  
Leonora Živilė Gelumbauskaitė ◽  
Tom Flodén ◽  
Algimantas Grigelis ◽  
Albertas Bitinas

The present study area is located within the south–eastern segment of the Baltic Sea framed by 55o30’–56o30’ N and 19o00’–21o15’E. The area is re-visited with the aim to describe in more detail the geologic prerequisite and development of the palaeo–incisions as well as the timing of their subsequent infillings. The channels form distinctive features in the sedimentary bedrock along the outer limits of pre–Weichselian ice sheets, on average reaching depths into the bedrock of 50 m in the nearshore zone of Lithuania to 100 m along the slope to the Gotland depression in the west. The development of palaeo–incisions systems is governed by the easily eroded late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic bedrock of the present area. Only rare ocurrences of channels have been reported from the middle and lower parts of the Palaeozoic further west in the Baltic Sea. The present investigation supports a mechanism that the channels formed below the ice near the ice sheet margin by melt water erosion under high pressure. The channels start at random where a fracture in the ice develops forming outlet of water contained below the central part of the ice sheet. The channels often merge together in the direction of the ice margin, possibly gradually adapting to previous fracture systems in the bedrock. The investigated incisions were infilled prior to the advance of the Weichselian ice sheet and some have been reopened and repeatedly infilled.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Rydell ◽  
Lothar Bach ◽  
Petra Bach ◽  
Laura Guia Diaz ◽  
Joanna Furmankiewicz ◽  
...  

Baltica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-70
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Ponomarenko ◽  
Viktor Krechik ◽  
Evgenia Dorokhova

The Baltic Sea is characterized by a restricted exchange of deep waters due to permanent stratification of the water column. The aim of the present study is to investigate the distribution of benthic foraminifera in the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea in relation to environmental parameters. The distribution of benthic foraminifera was analyzed in 26 surface sediment samples collected in the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea and in the Bornholm Basin during springtime and wintertime 2016. Foraminiferal diversity in the studied region was extremely low. Agglutinated specimens dominated the assemblages and were represented by small-sized individuals which belong to Psammosphaera, Pseudothurammina, Saccammina, and Reophax genera. Calcareous foraminifera were dominated by Cribroelphidium genus. Micropaleontological data were compared to the environmental parameters characterizing bottom water (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen content) and substrate conditions (grain size composition and total organic carbon content). Higher foraminiferal concentrations and diversity were found in deeper parts of the study region where fine-grained sediments with a higher total organic carbon content were accumulated under stable hydrographical conditions. Calcareous tests were found only at the stations with elevated salinity, indicating that bottom water salinity is the main factor limiting the distribution of calcareous foraminifera. On the other hand, substrate parameters and hydrodynamic conditions appear to play a major role in the distribution of agglutinated foraminifera.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1456
Author(s):  
Vitalijus Kondrat ◽  
Ilona Šakurova ◽  
Eglė Baltranaitė ◽  
Loreta Kelpšaitė-Rimkienė

Port of Klaipėda is situated in a complex hydrological system, between the Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, at the Klaipėda strait in the South-Eastern part of the Baltic Sea. It has almost 300 m of jetties separating the Curonian Spit and the mainland coast, interrupting the main path of sediment transport through the South-Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. Due to the Port of Klaipėda reconstruction in 2002 and the beach nourishment project, which was started in 2014, the shoreline position change tendency was observed. Shoreline position measurements of various periods can be used to derive quantitative estimates of coastal process directions and intensities. These data can be used to further our understanding of the scale and timing of shoreline changes in a geological and socio-economic context. This study analyzes long- and short-term shoreline position changes before and after the Port of Klaipėda reconstruction in 2002. Positions of historical shorelines from various sources were used, and the rates (EPR, NSM, and SCE) of shoreline changes have been assessed using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). An extension of ArcGIS K-means clustering was applied for shoreline classification into different coastal dynamic stretches. Coastal development has changed in the long-term (1984–2019) perspective: the eroded coast length increased from 1.5 to 4.2 km in the last decades. Coastal accumulation processes have been restored by the Port of Klaipėda executing the coastal zone nourishment project in 2014.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 300185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Safonova ◽  
Swetlana König

The stability of an ecosystem strongly depends on the biodiversity of its microorganisms population. The network of interactions between microorganisms provides a flexible response to various changes of the coenotic equilibrium. This equilibrium changes drastically if such a network is damaged by oil spills or any other kind of pollution, representing a danger to the existence of a whole ecosystem. Bioremediation is a method employing microorganisms to remove pollutants and to restore the ecology of populations. Understandably due to its nature, this approach is considered to be the most gentle and safe one what makes it very attractive. Our focus was to improve the efficiency of the treatment of oil pollution in the Baltic Sea. As a part of “BioBind” project, we aimed to create artificial associations of alkanotrophic bacteria and phototrophic partners (algae or cyanobacteria) and to use them as an effective tool for the removal of oil spills. In summer and winter 2011–2012, we isolated 157 strains of both algae and cyanobacteria and 199 bacteria. The samples were taken from four different places of the Baltic Sea in the areas of Rostock, St. Petersburg, Kiel and Sassnitz. After the screening, we have selected 19 strains of alkanotrophyc bacteria and 23 strains of green algae and cyanobacteria showing resistance to the pollutants. The screening was performed in media containing an oil, phenol and phenanthrene at low temperatures (4°C and 10°C) and different salt concentrations. All selected species of bacteria belonged to the genus Rhodococcus. Further selection was aimed at finding combinations of bacterial strains which show an increased degrading capacity and exceeding the one of the originally isolated microorganisms. As a result, we have selected associations with the degradation of crude oil (at the concentration of 2 g/L) with a degradation rate from 25% up to 35%. Furthermore, we have discovered that the presence of the phototrophic microorganisms in these associations resulted to a positive modest effect with regard to the efficiency of the system by several percent. Our result proves clearly the concept that bioremediation represents an effective mean to clean up oil spills. This is remarkable that the system also shows plasticity and can be improved by creating different variations of the microorganisms constituting it. Thus bioremedation provides scope for further development. The selected artificial associations can be recommended for the purification of oil pollution in the Baltic Sea.


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-81
Author(s):  
Ju. Ju. Polunina ◽  
E. K. Lange ◽  
V. A. Krechik

Were found peculiarities of the structure and distribution in the autumn plankton of the South -Eastern part of the Baltic sea (SEB) in October 2015 taking into account hydrological and hydrochemical data. There were no changes registered as to the taxonomic composition of phyto- and zooplankton, including no increase in the number of the stenothermic and stenohaline species, as well as no significant differences in the hydrological parameters in comparison with the long-term analogous data. Thus, there was no influence of the winter Major Baltic Inflow in December 2014 on the plankton SEB next autumn. The level of phytoplankton vegetation in the upper homogeneous layer (125±39 thous. cells/l, 664±143 mg/m3) was higher compared to the long-term data. The abundance and biomass of zooplankton (5.1-16.8 thous. ind/m3 and 49-143 mg/m3) were within the typical value for autumn in the studied area. Peculiarity of zooplankton spatial distribution were related to trophic resources and the thermohaline structure of the water column.


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