Transboundary management of Transitional Waters – Code of Conduct and Good Practice examples

Transitional waters have the ecological peculiarity of being both very fragile and resilient at the same time. The degradation of the transitional waters and the decline of their economic value arise from the excessive use of the resources, external input of pollutants mostly brought by large tributaries and from the mismanagement of the adjacent areas. The EU Water Framework Directive has accelerated the transboundary co-operation and development of spatially integrative management approaches in the south Baltic transitional waters. A high-level political committment in countries sharing a transitional water body, a professional agency, a stakeholders‘ forum and regular funding is the key to successful transboundary management of transitional waters.https://commons.wmu.se/artwei/1001/thumbnail.jp

Desktop Study Report : Linking management of natural coastal resources to socioeconomic development

The HERRING Desktop Study Report links management of natural coastal resources to socioeconomic development.https://commons.wmu.se/herring/1003/thumbnail.jp

HERRING Impact Report Herring spawning areas - present and future challenges

The Impact Report presents the research about the ecological conditions of herring spawning grounds in the case study areas and what present and future challenges they face.https://commons.wmu.se/herring/1001/thumbnail.jp

Visualizing the Social in Aquaculture: How Social Dimension Components Illustrate the Effects of Aquaculture across Geographic Scales

Until very recently, governments of many countries, as well as their supporting organizations, have primarily addressed the biological, technical and economic aspects of aquaculture. In contrast, social and cultural aspects of aquaculture production have taken a backseat. Drawing on the observation that aquaculture development in Western Societies has largely failed to address these social effects across different scales and contexts, this paper offers a new way of capturing and visualising the diverse social dimensions of aquaculture. It does so by testing the ability to operationalise a set of social dimensions based on categories and indicators put forward by the United Nations, using several case studies across the North Atlantic. Local/regional stakeholder knowledge realms are combined with scientific expert knowledge to assess aquaculture operations against these indicators. The approach indicates that one needs to have a minimum farm size in order to have an impact of a visible scale for the different social dimension categories. While finfish aquaculture seems to be more social impactful than rope mussel farming, the latter can hold important cultural values and contribute to place-based understanding, connecting people with place and identity, thus playing a vital role in maintaining the working waterfront identity. It could be shown that aquaculture boosts a potential significant pull-factor to incentivise people to remain in the area, keeping coastal communities viable. By visualising the social effects of aquaculture, a door may be opened for new narratives on the sustainability of aquaculture that render social license and social acceptability more positive

HERRING : An analysis of spawning ground management, ecological conditions and human impacts in Greifswald Bay, Vistula Lagoon and Hanö Bight.

This book compiles the findings of the HERRING project which was conducted from 2012 until 2015 and part-financed by the EU South Baltic Programme. The main objective of the HERRING project is to improve the consideration of including herring spawning grounds in coastal management. Herring as a resource recourse would be part of the economic development of coastal areas, and HERRING strongly emphasizes the importance of foster an integrated coastal management in the South Baltic Sea. Three case study areas in Germany, Poland and Sweden serve as the basis of the approach, which can be roughly distinguished in two parts. The analysis of the ecological parameters and conditions as well as the impacts of present and future human activities, spatial uses and natural changes The analysis and compilation of the multi-level institutions and manage- ment instruments that govern the use and protection of coastal herring spawning grounds. The management of coastal spawning areas can function as an example to show the huge diversity of interest, demands and actors that need to be considered for the sustainable use of resources and ecosystems.https://commons.wmu.se/mer_book/1002/thumbnail.jp

Zebra Mussel Farming in the Szczecin (Oder) Lagoon: Water-Quality Objectives and Cost-Effectiveness

The Oder (Szczecin) Lagoon in the southern Baltic Sea is a heavily eutrophicated and degraded coastal ecosystem. We applied a systems approach framework to critically evaluate whether existing water-management measures achieve water-quality objectives for the river and lagoon systems. Our simulations reveal that the existing water-quality objectives for the river and the coastal waters are not sufficiently complementary. We suggest new water-quality threshold concentrations, which are in agreement with the European Water Framework Directive, and we calculate acceptable maximum nutrient loads for the Oder River. These calculations suggest that external nutrient-load reductions in the river basin alone seem insufficient to achieve good water quality in the lagoon. A comprehensive eutrophication management approach should also include internal nutrient-retention and nutrient-removal measures in the lagoon. We focus on mussel farming, i.e., that of zebra mussels, Dreissena polymorpha, because they are efficient in removing nutrients and improving water transparency in the Oder Lagoon. For this purpose, the ecosystem model ERGOM is extended by a mussel module and an economic model. The economic model describes costs and benefits of mussel cultivation depending on the the farm size. We included additional potential sources of income such as water-quality tax or emission certificates. The simulations show that mussel farming in the lagoon is a suitable supportive measure and, at a load-reduction target of 50% or more, it is a cost-efficient measure for removing nutrients and for implementing the Baltic Sea Action Plan. In the Oder Lagoon, mussel farming could potentially remove nearly 1000 t of N (70 t of P)/year, or about 2% of the present N and P loads, and it would have the additional benefit of improving water transparency

Stepping stones along urban coastlines-improving habitat connectivity for aquatic fauna with constructed floating wetlands

Urban development along coastlines is accompanied by habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat connectivity, particularly affecting the habitat and nursery function of estuarine areas for migratory marine species. Constructed floating wetlands, deployed as ‘stepping stones’ along urban coastlines where natural wetlands are missing, offer the potential to partially replace lost ecosystem services. Originally developed for wastewater treatment, constructed floating wetlands are now used to improve landscape aesthetics or create habitats for aquatic fauna and birds. This study presents a toolkit to identify appropriate sites for stepping stones using open source data and open source software alone. The toolkit was used to identify 85 potential installation sites along the German Baltic Sea coast, a large proportion of which are located in protected areas offering synergies with nature conservation measures. Though the sites are often located in protected areas, the field investigation revealed that natural vegetation is largely absent from the estuaries near urban areas. Constructed floating wetlands can never replace ‘core areas’ in ecological networks, but they can serve as stepping stones improving habitat connectivity, especially for diadromous fish species such as the threatened European eel. To ensure not only structural connectivity, but also functional connectivity, restoration efforts at the land-sea interface must be holistic and include adequate hydrologic connectivity

Constructed floating wetlands made of natural materials as habitats in eutrophicated coastal lagoons in the Southern Baltic Sea

Eutrophication remains an environmental challenge in lagoons along the Southern Baltic Sea. Floating islands planted with emergent macrophytes are an option to remove nutrients from eutrophicated waters. Furthermore, floating wetlands offer other ecosystem services such as the provision of habitats. Numerous scientific studies have been conducted; however most remain on the laboratory scale. This research explores the challenges associated with installations in coastal environments and focuses on sustainability of the island design, the habitat function as well as nutrient removal. Most floating wetland designs use polyethylene, polypropylene, polyurethane or polyvinyl alcohol foam to ensure the buoyancy. For this study an artificial polymer free island design was developed and tested. The floating constructions in the Darss-Zingst-Bodden-Chain were planted with native macrophytes which have the potential to act as ‘biodiversity-supplements’ to the adjacent coastal wetlands: Bolboschoenus maritimus, Carex acutiformis, Iris pseudacorus, Juncus effesus, Lythrum salicaria, Schoenoplectus lacustris, Typha latifolia. The chosen macrophytes survived fluctuating salinities. After three months the above-ground biomass was harvested and analyzed for the nutrient concentrations. Phosphorus concentrations were highest in L. salicaria and nitrogen in I. pseudacorus. Video monitoring and field observations were applied in order to observe animals. Birds did not use the floating wetlands as breeding grounds, but the grey heron (Ardea cinerea) was a common visitor for foraging. Especially surprising was the large amount of juvenile eels (Anguilla anguilla). A diverse and large root network below the floating islands boosts not only nutrient removal but serves as a shelter and refuge for fish such as the endangered eel

A revolution without people? Closing the people-policy gap in aquaculture development

Failure of the blue revolution is a global risk. The international problem is that there is a gap in knowledge exchange between the aquaculture industry, policy makers trying to support aquaculture development and people who depend on aquaculture for a job and/or food source. Thus, governments and international organizations promoting aquaculture as the solution to improving food security, nutrition and income are failing to optimise production of natural aquatic resources. We identify a "people-policy gap", and suggest that this is an understudied constraint, which needs to be overcome before worldwide food security can be achieved from aquatic environments. We argue that this gap leads to uneven distribution of benefits, a disconnection between benefits and local needs, and detrimental effects on human health and food security, all of which can have negative repercussions on human communities and ecosystems. In order to address this need, we present an analytical framework to guide context specific, policy-relevant assessments of the social, economic and ecological dimensions of aquaculture on a case-by-case basis. The framework is designed to make best use of existing data and scientific tools for decision-making. In conclusion, we argue for: equal consideration of ecological, social and economic issues in aquaculture policy-making; pre-emptive identification of likely social impacts; integration of people- and context-specific social framing conditions into planning and policy review; addressing the social disconnection between global consumption and production; and, encouragement of creative combinations of theories and methods to assess and interpret the social dimensions of aquaculture in multiple contexts