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) assessed measures that improve the status of marine area by reducing the internal load of the sea. The project piloted 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 were 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.
SEABASED Project results
In the SEABASED online event on January 26th, 2021 we revealed the results from SEABASED pilots that aim to reduce internal nutrient load. We heard keynotes and expert views from Finland and Sweden.
News & Blog
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January 25, 2021Key conclusion from the SEABASED project: no silver bullet for reducing internal nutrient loadThe SEABASED Project (Seabased Measures in Baltic Sea Nutrient Management), led by the John Nurminen Foundation and funded by the EU, examined measures that potentially could improve the state of the Baltic Sea by reducing the internal nutrient load of the sea. Although some of the piloted methods show great potential, no silver bullet was found to quickly relieve the nutrient load and eutrophication troubling the Baltic Sea. However, some methods for reducing internal load can be useful for improving the environmental conditions in heavily eutrophied, relatively enclosed small bay areas.
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December 17, 2020International SEABASED webinar 26.1.2021Could the spreading of activated limestone or fishing stickleback help remove nutrients from the Baltic Sea? Do these new conservation measures have potential to save the Baltic Sea, or will they remain as experiments? In the SEABASED online event on January 26th, 2021 we revealed the results from SEABASED pilots that aim to reduce internal nutrient load. We heard keynotes and expert views from Finland and Sweden. The event was held in English.
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January 18, 2021The SEABASED Project searched for solutions under the seaThe SEABASED Project is soon approaching its end and our final outputs are already on the way. In this blog post Project Manager Miina Mäki from the John Nurminen Foundation sums up the project’s highlights.
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January 15, 2021Four pieces of a puzzle: Results from the Nutrients from Sea to Field pilotFor two seasons, 2019 and 2020, we have been irrigating fields in Åland with nutrient rich brackish water from two strongly eutrophicated bays in the SEABASED project. So how did it go? Did it work?
