Environmental questions

Abstract

Physical oceanography and sea ice science are closely connected to ecology and human life in the Baltic Sea area, and these connections need to be understood by physicists themselves. Principally, this relates to the physics of the Baltic Sea which provides the background conditions for ecology in terms of light conditions, temperature, salinity and stratification, current dynamics including transport and diffusion, and the ice season. The life of Baltic Sea peoples has always been influenced by shipping conditions and fishery, and presently eutrophication, pollution, and the construction of infrastructure is an additional severe load to “our sea” (so-called by local people) by humankind. Section 9.1 treats light conditions, and Section 9.2 is about oxygen conditions in deep basins. Human impact is discussed in Section 9.3, and extreme situations for key physical quantities are presented in Section 9.4. Section 9.5 introduces operational oceanography, which has come to the fore in recent years and will have a key role in the future protection of the Baltic Sea.