Projects

Climate Change: Impacts, Costs and Adaptation in the Baltic Sea Region

The BaltCICA Project is designed to focus on the most imminent problems that climate change is likely to cause in the Baltic Sea Region. Changes in precipitation and flood patterns as well as rising sea level can affect not only the built environment but also water availability and quality. The project assesses costs and benefits of adaptation in case studies and on a pan-Baltic level.

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Status of the marine environement in the Beibu Gulf, South China Sea, and its develpoment during the Holocene under the course of natural and anthropogenic influence

The project aims at the balancing of meso-scale to long-scale energy and mass fluxes in the Beibu Gulf as a result of natural and anthropogenic forcing. Subject of investigation are the changes in subrecent deposits, nearshore matter input, the decomposition of organic matter as well as polutants and elemental fluxes. Geological and seismic studies focus on the holocenic history of sedimentation, sediment input and tektonic processes, and on the impact of land use in the coastal zone.

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Pathways of nutrients and timescales of nutrient transports in the Baltic Sea

This project investigates the spatial pathways of nutrients from multiple inputs into the Baltic Sea as well as their distribution in the food web. Another subject is the influence of biological processes on the spreading of nitrogen and phosphorus. Therefore the existing numerical ecosystem model ERGOM has been expanded by a tool that allows for the tracing of nutrient sources and the residence time of nutrients in the system.

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ECOSUPPORT

Development of an advanced numerical ecosystem model of the Baltic Sea for scenario simulations of the whole marine ecosystem that can underpin and inform design strategies to ensure water quality standards, biodiversity and fish stocks.

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Holocene saline water inflow changes into the Baltic Sea, ecosystem responses and future scenarios

The project aims at the reconstruction of the hydrographical parameters in the Baltic during the Holocene.

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Fehmarnbelt Hydrographic Services

In the course of investigations prior to the construction of a fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt, the effects of a bridge on hydropgraphical and biogeochemical parameters in the Baltic Sea have been studied in cooperation with the Danish companies DHI Group, LICengineering and Bolding & Burchard.

The results will be included into the environmental impact studies which are going to be assessed by German authorities and the Danish parliament.

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Geochemistry and Ecology of the Namibian Upwelling System

GENUS intends to clarify relationships between climate change, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem structure in the large marine ecosystem of the northern Benguela / Namibian Coast (SW Africa).

Podcasts...

We aim at improving the numerical environment of IOW's numerical Baltic Sea circulation model which is based on the GFDL-licensed Modular Ocean Model (MOM), in order to integrate new modules and maintain the model code.

A key element is the digitised bottom structure  (topography) of the Baltic Sea. Among other things, detailed knowledge of the shape of the Baltic Sea floor with its narrow channels in the Danish Belt Sea and deep basins in the Baltic Proper is important for simulating the spreading of water masses. Read more about IOW's digital topography of the Baltic Sea, IOWTOPO.