WP3: Land-sea interaction

Lead: Magnus Hellström

This workpackage 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

1. Assess multiple stressors (abiotic and anthropogenic) at the land-sea intersection.
2. Develop biodiversity stress mitigation strategies for sustainable use of the land-sea continuum.
3. Promote sustainable coastal human communities and resources.

The work is structured under three specific tasks:

Mitigation of local-to-regional stress may allow ecological systems to cope with and/or adapt to global climate change. Yet, at the land-sea continuum, the problem seems to lie in a lack of knowledge of multiple stressors as well as the division of responsibility for sustainable use and management between land (municipalities, city) and sea (state, regions). This task assesses knowledge gaps in biodiversity effects, monitoring and planning activities of multiple pressures (e.g., from harbours, primary/secondary homes, summer cottages, local to regional infrastructure and sea use, to global change) in the land-sea continuum by identifying the multitude of local (e.g., underwater noise, light pollution, wave action), regional (e.g., eutrophication), and global (e.g. ocean acidification and warming) drivers as well as their interactions, imposing increasing pressure onto shallow coastal land-sea ecosystems.

The work includes literature reviews in combination with experimental work investigating impacts of multiple stressors on key habitats and species in the field and in wave and mesocosm experimental facilities, highlighting the inter-connectedness of land-sea ecosystems and their monitoring and management, or the lack of such. In addition, stakeholder interviews and discussions with relevant planning agencies will be conducted. The expected outcomes include identifications of a set of relevant land-sea drivers, and their interactions, for biodiversity change, and communications of potential mitigation measures of such pressures, using novel communication tools and approaches.

Contact: Christian Pansch-Hattich

Sea-based clean energy, especially offshore wind, holds the potential of enabling Finland’s energy transition and even making the country a net exporter of energy. This task studies the sector’s sustainability and biodiversity impact, with a focus on alternative concepts for offshore wind farms that may increase the sustainability of energy production (i.e. co-location with aquaculture, hybrid systems of combined battery storage and green hydrogen production). It aims at creating knowledge for enabling authorities and the industry to make sustainable decisions in the early stages of sea-based energy projects regarding, for example, concession, award and procurement criteria, and other governance mechanisms.

The task adopts a qualitative and action-oriented participatory research approach together with key stakeholders in the wind farm projects in the Åland Sea (and in the Gulf of Bothnia), such as wind farm developers, local communities, and regulators. Among the expected results are strategies for avoidance of negative biodiversity impact caused by offshore wind farm development, and a framework for biodiversity impact mitigation for conventional and alternative offshore wind farms.

Contacts: Magnus Hellström, Henrik Ringbom

This task investigates sustainability challenges linked to habitability in the Archipelago and impacts on biodiversity, focusing on uneven seasonal distribution of inhabitants (low and high season), impacting the infrastructure footprint (e.g., water use, sewage and effluent, energy consumption) on the environment. Habitability analysis in combination with stakeholder interviews at different levels (local-regional-national) is to be explored, to find out what challenges exist, both for the island societies and for nature.

Contact: Magnus Hellström, Cecilia Lundberg

People

Magnus Hellström SOS WP3 Lead; Professor in the Laboratory of Industrial Management+358 40 737 9980magnus.hellstrom@abo.fiResearch profile
Cecilia Lundberg SOS Co-creation Coordinator; Education Planner at the Centre for Lifelong Learning+358 46 920 2007cecilia.lundberg@abo.fiResearch profile
Christian Pansch-Hattich
Christian Pansch-Hattich SOS WP6 Lead; Professor of Environmental and Marine Biology+358 50 512 6850 christian.pansch-hattich@abo.fiResearch profile
Henrik Ringbom SOS WP4 Lead; Professor of Marine Law+358 50 463 3904henrik.ringbom@abo.fiResearch profile
Conny Sjöqvist Postdoctoral Researcher, SOS WP3conny.sjoqvist@abo.fiResearch profile