Tools for sustainable management of the Baltic Sea
A centre for excellence in marine science focusing on the Baltic region was established in Poland with the support of the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme. The centre is led by scientists from the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Gdansk (IOUG). One of the centre's tasks was to develop an ecohydrodynamic model for the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea is of historic importance both politically and economically as it hosts several key northern European ports. Ensuring the health of the underlying marine ecosystem is of utmost importance and the model will aid in the management of this valuable resource. The ecohydrodynamic model was created by combining the hydrodynamic model M3D_UG and the ecosystem model ProDeMo. Collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Computer Modelling Centre of Warsaw University provides access to the output of their meteorological forecast model, which is updated every four hours. The main output of the ecohydrodynamic model is fields of sea surface currents, temperatures and salinities. Estimates of nitrate, ammonia, phosphate, silicate, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen and phytoplankton biomass concentrations are also calculated. In the context of the BALTDER project, the model was tested in a quasi-operational mode over the Southern Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Gdansk and the Pomeranian Bay. In addition to model development and testing, significant effort was also dedicated to making the model results available online. Graphical output as well as a description of the model can be found at: http://model.ocean.univ.gda.pl/indexeng.html(opens in new window)