Controlling benthic release of phosphorus in different Baltic Sea scales (PROPPEN)
Start year: 2009
End year: 2011
Contact at SYKE: Heikki Pitkänen
Project member(s): Heikki Pitkänen, Jouni Lehtoranta, Kai Rasmus, Päivi Korpinen, Paula Väänänen (SYKE), Christer Lännergren (Stockholm Vatten, Sweden), Markku Ollikainen, Kari Aarnos (University of Helsinki, Finland), Erkki Saarijärvi, K. Matti Lappalainen (Vesi-Eko Oy, Finland), Juhani Anhava, Maarit Priha (Pöyry Finland Oy), Marianne Zandersen (ECON Pöyry A/S, Denmark), Jørgen Bendtsen, Karin Gustafsson (VitusLab, Denmark), Marko Reinikainen, Harri Kuosa, Veijo Kinnunen (Tvärminne Zoological Station, Finland)
Funders: Naturvårdsverket (Sweden), Formas (Sweden), VINNOVA (Sweden)
Partners: University of Helsinki (Department of Economics and Management, Tvärminne Zoological Station, Finland), National Environmental Research Institute (NERI, Denmark), Stockholm Vatten (Sweden), Vesi-Eko Oy (Finland), Pöyry Finland Oy, ECON Pöyry A/S (Norway), VitusLab (Denmark)
Project description
A joint Nordic three-year research project will show whether pumping of oxygen-rich surface water down to the bottom-near water layers can improve the state of coastal waters that suffer from oxygen depletion. In anoxic conditions, nutrients stored in the bottom sediment, particularly phosphorus, are released into water, causing eutrophication. The Finnish research site is the Sandöfjärden basin in the coastal western Gulf of Finland. Oxygenation will also be tested in a bay 10 km from Stockholm. The results from Finland and Sweden will be compared. The joint Nordic research project is coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) whereas the main financer is the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket).
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Based on the experiments at the coast and in the laboratory, a model study will be carried out. The objective is to find out whether oxygenation is a relevant method to control eutrophication in a larger scale, even in open sea areas, and how cost-efficient this method would be.
The objective of the field experiments is to find out how much the pumping of oxygen-rich water can improve the state of near-bottom water, and how much the phosphorus storage capacity of the bottom sediment could be improved. The pumping devices will be mounted in the deep part of Sandöfjärden in June. The state of the case areas will be monitored by continuous automatic measurements, as well as by traditional sampling and laboratory analyses.
The Finnish partners of SYKE in this project are the University of Helsinki, Pöyry Finland Oy and Water Eco Ltd. The Swedish partner is Stockholm Water. From Denmark the National Environmental Research Institute, NERI is participating as well as VitusLab, and the Norwegian partner is ECON Pöyry A/S. Results
The results and conclusions of the study will be published in scientific journals as well as in widely read newspapers. More information
Mr. Heikki Pitkänen, Project coordinator, Finnish Environment Institute SYKE, phone +358 40 582 3182, firstname.surname@ymparisto.fi
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