The Baltic Sea is a brackish water ecosystem with relatively few species. Serious environmental problems include eutrophication, hazardous substances, the intensive use of natural resources and ecosystem services, and the impacts of increasingly intense shipping traffic. Climate change also affects the state of the Baltic Sea and its ecosystems in many ways.
Effective and carefully targeted actions are needed to help the Baltic Sea recover to a good ecological state. It is therefore vital to understand how changes in environmental factors affect the structures and functions of its marine ecosystem.
The Baltic Sea can be seen as an entire ecosystem with distinct biogeochemical characteristics, dependent on both external factors and internal processes within the sea. Significant factors include physical, chemical and biological factors, as well as complex interrelationships and feedback mechanisms involving marine organisms.
Wide-ranging research into the structures and functions of the Baltic Sea encompasses studies of the movements of water masses, ice, marine geology and sediments, ecophysiology, marine ecology, marine modelling, and biodiversity, including fish stocks.
