The Seabased Project
The most large-scale problem of the Baltic Sea is eutrophication. While we have been successful in cutting the nutrient load from land, nutrients that are stored in the seabed slow down the Sea’s recovery. The SEABASED Project (Seabased Measures in Baltic Sea Nutrient Management) assesses measures that improve the status of marine area by reducing the internal load of the sea. The project pilots selected measures in the pilot areas in Finland, Åland and Sweden.
Pilots
SEABASED pilots are small-scale local activities, testing methods to alleviate the internal nutrient load in the Baltic Sea with low risks of causing any negative effects to the ecosystem. Piloted measures, that could help reduce the effects of excess nutrient load in the Baltic Sea include e.g. removing the active, oxygen-consuming surface layer of bottom sediment; recycling the nutrient-rich water from the proximity of the seabed for use in farming; and retaining phosphorus in the seabed sediment using natural, limestone-based materials, e.g. marl. Most of SEABASED pilot activities will be implemented during 2019-2020.
Go to pilotsAquatic compensation
Alongside the pilot activities, SEABASED has a mission to develop a concept of aquatic compensation in coastal waters with focus on nutrient offsetting. The objective is to examine different options and needs for new regulations for legislation and to find functional and sustainable solutions, e.g., to be utilized in ecosystem-based compensations in the future, for which Åland will act as “a test laboratory”. The concept will be applied and tested in practice with pilot activities to reduce nutrients from the marine environment and to restore the coastal pilot areas into better conditions. A model for a Water Improvement Fund will also be described with the effort of taking aquatic compensation from theory into practice.
Facts & Materials
Find answers to your questions about the SEABASED Project and check out the Baltic Sea terminology.
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News & Blog
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April 3, 2020Nordkalk donates limestone to the SEABASED-projectNordkalk donates limestone to the SEABASED-project for piloting a measure that could bind eutrophying phosphorus permanently into the sediments of the seabed. In the project, three pilots at selected areas with activated limestone application to phosphorus containing bottom sediments will be implemented in chosen pilot sites in coastal bays in Sweden (Östergötland and Stockholm) and Finland (Archipelago Sea). The crushed limestone will be pre-treated by burning at facilities of Cementa in Gotland and then transported to the pilot sites and spread over the seabed to bind phosphorus into the sediment.
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March 2, 2020SEABASED listed as one of top 100 of research projectsThe SEABASED project’s activated limestone pilot was lifted up by the Swedish Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien (IVA) as one of the top 100 research initiatives that have business potential.
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February 28, 2020First trial with a new phosphorus sequestering agent in the Stockholm archipelagoA field trial of a newly developed phosphorus sorbent is ongoing in Djuröfladen, a small semi-enclosed bay in the Stockholm archipelago (Värmdö municipality). The pilot trials are led by Stockholm University and its contractors. Environmental consultant Nils Ekeroth describes the details of the on-going trial.
