Through the collaboration within CoastClim, marine ecosystem and climate change research is strenghtened between universities. The multidisciplinary research team of CoastClim brings together a cutting-edge of expertise in marine ecology, biogeochemistry, atmospheric sciences, and ecosystem modelling.

The research team brings together the Tvärminne Zoological Station and the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) at Helsingfors University, with the Stockholm University Baltic Sea Centre and the Bolin Centre for Climate Research at Stockholm University.

CoastClim joins and elaborates existing infrastructures of both universities, their marine field stations Askö Laboratory (Stockholm University) and Tvärminne Zoological Station (University of Helsingfors). While the Swedish-Finnish partnership provides immense added value to the effort, it should be noted that the Swedish “Askö CoastClim” unit is also operational on its own.

The aim of CoastClim is to deliver an in-depth understanding of the combined biodiversity and climate problem in the coastal ecosystems in the Baltic Sea. By quantifying the full spectrum of habitat-specific green house gas fluxes and aerosol production in the Baltic coastal zone, our key objective is to quantify the feedbacks between healthy or degraded coastal habitats and their role in the life cycles of green house gasses and aerosols.

The climate mitigation potential is assessed through integrative measuring platforms, utilizing one of the best-known coastal ecosystems globally. We intend to build novel research infrastructure making geophysical habitat mapping and atmospheric measurements of green house gasses and aerosols possible, as the final component for a full-fledged observatory.

We lack detailed information about key habitats especially in shallow areas that are both significant C sinks but also sources of GHG. We will expand our geophysical seafloor mapping capacities developing a fleet of autonomous surface vehicles to map key Blue C areas. Air-sea exchange research laboratory facilities will be built at Askö with portable components that can be mounted on the research vessel R/V Electra, allowing unique observations on the links between marine biogeochemistry and sea spray. A new mass spectrometer will be operated to characterize the chemical composition of aerosols and their precursors, a Potential Aerosol Mass chamber will be used to investigate the oxidation and aerosol formation potential, and particle counters and spectrometers will be used to quantify aerosol size distributions. The investment goes beyond the infrastructure to provide the intellectual foundation for the new science we urgently need.