Research

The overall aim of SOS to establish a novel, transdisciplinary, and user-centric paradigm as well as an expert community for identifying and analysing marine biodiversity-related wicked problems and their solutions that support the sustainability transition.

SOS addresses the biodiversity crisis through the inter-/transdisciplinary lens by focusing on the overarching research questions of when and how human actions interact with marine biodiversity in creating wicked problems, and what can be done to solve such challenges. More specifically, the following research questions guide our work:

In what ways and when does marine coastal biodiversity change constitute a wicked problem?
How can complex interactions between biodiversity, abiotic and anthropogenic activities be understood, measured, and predicted by investigating the problems in a transdisciplinary and context-based setting?
In what ways is marine biodiversity linked to the green transition and society’s shift towards a more sustainable future, given its role in providing critical services to us humans?
How can a transdisciplinary approach, including co-production of knowledge with various stakeholders, be applied to approach marine biodiversity related wicked problems?

SOS evaluates these research questions in a model area encompassing the Archipelago Sea and Åland Islands. This region is one of the world’s largest and the densest inhabited archipelagos with the length of its coastline spanning halfway around the globe. The area also includes a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, a National Park, and numerous marine protected areas, as well as hosts unique governance structures including those between the autonomous Åland Islands and the mainland. Moreover, as part of the Baltic Sea, it is one of the world’s fastest warming marine areas due to climate change and Finland’s last eutrophication hot-spot area.

As a means to practice action-oriented research and co-creation, SOS applies and further develops the Living Lab Methodology. The core of this methodology lies in integrating the biological and societal consequences of marine wicked problems. The researchers and stakeholders, representing a broad range of disciplines, co-create a shared definition of biodiversity-related problems from the outset, but also collectively develop (re)solutions for those problems, in a process that is iterative, circular, and inclusive on all levels. Moreover, SOS integrates a broad range of quantitative and qualitative research methods, spanning natural sciences, social sciences to humanities and the arts.

The key scientific output of SOS is a co-produced, state-of-the-art multidisciplinary approach for understanding marine biodiversity threats, and a novel transdisciplinary methodology to tackle marine wicked problems and generate sustainable solutions.

The work is structured around 6 workpackages. WPs 1–3 include specific case-studies of wicked problems, while WPs 4–6 draw on these, support this work and synthesise the findings.

SOS Work Packages

Lead: Christoffer Boström

The prerequisites for a healthy and clean sea include functional and resilient ecosystems, which require effective measures such as mitigation of human pressures, implemented area-based conservation and accountability. A major challenge behind these measures lies in understanding the interlinkages between structure (e.g. habitat extent, distribution and density), function (e.g. the physical, chemical and biological processes) and ecosystem services (e.g. provisioning, regulatory, and cultural services).

The objectives of WP1 are to

establish structure-function-service (SFS) links for two key habitats in the model area; seagrass meadows and bladderwrack,
link habitat functions to ecosystem services to guide conservation and identify main threats to service provisioning,
improve knowledge transfer of the SFS chain for blue growth sectors such as maritime traffic by considering biodiversity and ecosystem services in public and private decision-making.

Lead: Sonja Salovius-Laurén

This WP seeks solutions to improve food production development in coastal areas (agriculture and fisheries) towards sustainable practices with reduced nutrient enrichment to the sea, and by engaging stakeholders.

The objectives of WP2 are to

identify strategies and prerequisites for restoration of key habitat-forming macrophytes in fish nursery habitats to increase natural fish production,
identify solutions to challenges in decision-making and monitoring of aquaculture practices,
mitigate land runoff from agriculture through incentivising agricultural practices.

Lead: Magnus Hellström

WP3 develops science-based solutions for successful co-existence of marine activities and coastal nature. This is done by studying relevant cases, including impacts from coastal homes/cottages (e.g. piers, leisure boating, small-scale dredging), offshore wind farm development, and habitability in the archipelago.

The objectives of WP3 are to

assess multiple stressors (abiotic and anthropogenic) at the land-sea intersection,
develop biodiversity stress mitigation strategies for sustainable use of the land-sea continuum,
promote sustainable coastal human communities and resources.

Lead: Henrik Ringbom

Drawing mainly on the case studies from WPs 1–3, this WP analyses the path towards holistic marine governance and regulation, balancing the protection and use of marine biodiversity. Holistic governance helps to improve coordination across government levels and policy frameworks and to be responsive to changes in human activities and marine ecosystems, increasing the legitimacy of biodiversity governance and regulation.

The objectives of WP4 are to

identify conditions of holistic governance and social acceptability for biodiversity policy success in the Archipelago Sea and beyond,
translate the findings of WPs 1–3 into a workable legal framework that builds upon such holistic governance.

Lead: Nina Tynkkynen

WP5 contributes to a paradigm shift for sustainable ocean science.

The objectives of WP5 are to

analyse and further develop the methods for knowledge co-creation based on WPs 1–4 and 6 (ITD cooperation; living labs, art-science collaboration; other co-creation),
encourage reflexive ITD learning by developing strategies and concepts to manage diverging knowledge-systems of ocean science.

Lead: Christian Pansch-Hattich

This WP supports WPs 1–5 through the integration and connection of approaches, solution-oriented engagement, and through the establishment of new collaborations and novel bottom-up research fields.

The objectives of WP6 are to

coordinate and develop the Living Lab stakeholder engagement,
foster new internal collaborations and enable co-creation around WPs 1–5,
enable mutual engagement of scientists, arts, and society through establishing an ÅAU ocean literacy effort,
strive for a challenge-based learning.