The Baltic Sea: An ecosystem with multiple stressors

• Published in: Environment International
• Main Authors: Dietz, R., Sonne, C., Jenssen, B.M., Das, Krishna, de Wit, C.A., Harding, K.C., Siebert, U., Olsen, T.
• Other Authors: FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021
• Subjects: POPs; mercury; Health effects; biomarkers; Baltic; Life sciences; Environmental sciences & ecology; Aquatic sciences & oceanology; Sciences du vivant; Sciences de l’environnement & écologie; Sciences aquatiques & océanologie; Arctic; Dietz; Cervin; Climate change
• Online Access: https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/255848; https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/255848/1/2021%20EI%20Dietz%20et%20al.%20.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106324

peer reviewed This introductory chapter to our Environment International VSI does not need an abstract and therefore we just include our recommendations below in order to proceed with the resubmission. Future work should examine waterbirds as food web sentinels of multiple stressors as well as Baltic Sea food web dynamics of hazardous substances and how climate change may modify it. Also, future work should aim at further extending the new frameworks developed within BALTHEALTH for energy and contaminant transfer at the population level (Desforges et al., 2018, Cervin et al., 2020/this issue Silva et al., 2020/this issue) and their long term effects on Baltic Sea top predators, such as harbour porpoises, grey seals ringed seals, and white-tailed eagles. Likewise, the risk evaluation conducted for PCB in connection with mercury on Arctic wildlife (Dietz et al., 2019, not a BONUS BALTHEALTH product) could be planned for Baltic Sea molluscs, fish, bird and marine mammals in the future. Finally, future efforts could include stressors not covered by the BONUS BALTHEALTH project, such as food web fluxes, overexploitation, bycatches, eutrophication and underwater noise.