Research project Living Coast Project
Levande kust is a full-scale demonstration project with the objective to show that it is possible to restore a eutrophic bay and to find out the costs and lessons that can be learned from such a project.
The work within the project has been permeated by a scientific approach and has had the goal to summarise and communicate results, approaches and experiences in order to stimulate and strengthen water management efforts in other eutrophied lakes and coastal areas.
Project description
The project was initiated by BalticSea2020 in 2011 and was conducted in Björnöfjärden, a bay I Stockholm archipelago that can be described as a “miniature Baltic Sea” because of extensive eutrophication, limited water exchange and large areas of anoxic (oxygen depleted) bottom waters. Within the project various measures was implemented to reduce the supply of the nitrogen and phosphorus from land and bottom sediments to the water, and thereby regaining good water quality and an improved environment.
In addition to the remediation work, a ten-year monitoring program has been running in Björnöfjärden and a reference bay to enable the evaluation of the effects of the measures as well as the recovery of the ecosystem.
BalticSea2020 is the initiator and main funder of the research project. Stockholm University hosts the project since 2019.
White Paper Living Coast Project (7031 Kb)
Project members
Project managers
Linda Kumblad
Associate Professor
Members
Emil Rydin
Associate Professor
Zhihao Xu
Postdoc
Bo Gustafsson
Researcher
Erik Gustafsson
Researcher
Publications
More about this project
Data Sets
Monitoring data (2011-2022) on:
• water chemistry, phyto- and zooplankton from Björnöfjärden and the reference bays Fjällsviksviken and Skarpösundet
• water chemistry in water in the inlets to Björnöfjärden
• bottom fauna
• fish (adult and juvenile)
• underwater vegetation
• spatial and temporal development of oxygen concertation in Björnöfjärden
Model Set-ups
Biogeochemical model of Björnöfjärden (adapted from Baltsem)
Ongoing/planned papers
- Organic P and its role in eutrophication development
- Mobile P in coastal sediment
- Retention of P in shallow soft bottoms
- Fish community responses to restoration of a eutrophic coastal bay
- Responses of a coastal ecosystem to eutrophication remediation
- Spatial and temporal development of oxygen concertation in the bottom water after remediation
- Influence of private sewers and horse keeping on the water quality in an enclosed bay
- Effects of measures to reduce the load from agriculture
- Al-concentrations in water and biota in an Al-treated enclosed bay