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2011 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

17. Seafloor Desertification – A Future Scenario for the Gulf of Finland?

Authors : Henry Vallius, Vladimir Zhamoida, Aarno Kotilainen, Daria Ryabchuk

Published in: The Baltic Sea Basin

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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Abstract

The Gulf of Finland is a shallow semi-enclosed sea area which due to strong anthropogenic pressure and poor water exchange is very sensitive to eutrophication. During its whole postglacial history, the seafloor of the gulf has been periodically anoxic, and anoxia below halocline can thus be seen as a natural phenomenon. During the last decades, however, this has been accompanied by a yearly repeated seasonal anoxia in the shallower basins above halocline. This yearly repeated shallower anoxia is triggered by substantial eutrophication of the sea and is a clear signal of anthropogenic pressure. The seasonal anoxia has during the last decades propagated to basins with water depths less than 20 m. The areal coverage of anoxia has thus expanded substantially. Phosphorus which is bound to oxic seafloor sediments is easily released during episodes of anoxia, which further intensifies eutrophication. It has been estimated that the concretion fields of the eastern Gulf of Finland, only, contain more than 330,000 tons of P2O5 which is equal to some 175,000 tons of elementary phosphorus. In case of shallowing of the area of permanent anoxia, these concretion fields would become anoxic, which would lead to rather rapid dissolution of the concretions and a release of a large amount of phosphorus together with the heavy metals which today are bound to the concretions.

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Metadata
Title
Seafloor Desertification – A Future Scenario for the Gulf of Finland?
Authors
Henry Vallius
Vladimir Zhamoida
Aarno Kotilainen
Daria Ryabchuk
Copyright Year
2011
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17220-5_17