Eastern Baltic Sea Coast Research Articles

Assessment of Coastal Cultural Ecosystem Services and Well-Being for Integrating Stakeholder Values into Coastal Planning

Coastal areas provide ecosystem services (ES), including a wide range of cultural ecosystem services (CES). This study aims to operationalize the ES approach for integrated assessment and mapping of coastal CES through the case of the eastern Baltic Sea coast in Latvia. It explores an interdisciplinary approach to enhance coastal planning, leveraging the strengths of plural disciplines to ensure a more holistic representation of coastal CES. A set of methods and techniques from landscape ecology (e.g., landscape characterization, quality assessment, biophysical mapping) and social sciences (participatory GIS, stakeholder engagement events, nationwide survey) are developed and tested, particularly demonstrating links and correlations between landscape character and CES values and well-being dimensions. The results illuminate the main perceived well-being benefits that people gain from the coastal areas, highlighting the different perspectives of stakeholders. Finally, the integrated assessment results helped to construct proposals for sustainable tourism development in the area. The outcomes of the study are intended to assist planners and decision-makers in evaluating the potential for development and trade-offs in coastal regions. This research contributes to the advancement of coastal spatial planning methodologies, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder engagement and ES assessment for informed decision-making.

What hides in the beach sand? A multiproxy approach and new textural code to recognition of beach evolution on the southern and eastern Baltic Sea coast

Sand beaches occur along the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea, and their sediments serve as an excellent archive of the past environment. In this study, we explore four beach locations in Poland and Latvia, taking a special interest in their sediments at the microscale. We determine sediment properties, potential extreme event records and type of transportation by applying grain-size analysis, and analysis of shape and character of sand grain surfaces under a binocular microscope and in a Camsizer M1 automated particle shape analyser, followed by statistical analysis. For a large dataset (of grains), the statistical approach reveals sediment grain characteristics that are hidden when looking at results in a traditional way. This approach allows a new textural code to be proposed that helps identify beach evolution and sedimentary environment conditions. Additionally, we define the threshold sphericity values for incidental storm records, and conversely, for long-lasting transportation and mature beach sediments, which are 0.8 and 0.9228, respectively. Both the textural code and threshold values can be utilised in sandy beach settings elsewhere. All in all, we detect (1) beaches with mature sediments that have experienced long-lasting transportation and reworking, (2) beaches and ancient beach ridges with medium sediment reworking and sediment mixing due to medium transport duration and pedestrian traffic, respectively, and (3) beaches that combine records of incidental storm events with grain inheritance from pre-Quaternary environments.

Comparative Analysis of Ports on the Eastern Baltic Sea Coast

Ports are an important part of the global and regional freight supply chain and transport network. Background: as port activities have a significant impact on the economic growth of these countries, it is necessary to constantly analyse and plan port activities, anticipate market changes and improve the ability of ports to withstand the growing general competitive pressure. This article analyses studies conducted by researchers on the topic of seaports, thus, and find that there are no analyses comparing more than two ports. Methods: a comparative analysis of the ports on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea was conducted using the analysis of statistical data. Results: The Baltic Sea is surrounded by nine countries. Four countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia) have different coasts and different numbers of seaports. In this article, according to the selected parameters, 10 ports on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea are analyzed. Conclusions: The comparative analysis of ports on the eastern Baltic Sea revealed that Klaipeda port is the most diversified port in the eastern Baltic Sea region, given that it does not have any single most important type of cargo. The largest ports in terms of bulk cargo are in Tallinn, Riga and Ventspils. Primorsk is the largest port for liquid cargo and St. Petersburg handles the greatest volumes of cargo of a general type and while the distribution of cargo flows in the port of Visotsk is best correlated with the selected parameters, which allows us to state that the infrastructure of this port is used to the maximum.

A substantial range expansion of alien Ponto-Caspian amphipods along the eastern Baltic Sea coast

We report a considerable range expansion of four Ponto-Caspian amphipod species in transitional waters along the southeastern Baltic Sea coast. Chaetogammarus warpachowskyi and Dikerogammarus haemobaphes were found for the first time in Latvia, the former being common along the coast, while the latter was encountered only in the port of Riga. This indicates a 400 to 600 km expansion along the coast, assuming an origin from the Curonian or Vistula lagoons. We also officially document an expansion for Chelicorophium curvispinum in Latvia of ca. 300 km until Riga, confirming recent unpublished records. Moreover, we document a second invasion route of Pontogammarus robustoides into Estonia from nearby Latvian waters by uncovering a population at the port of Pärnu. This species was previously known in Estonia only from the Gulf of Finland (>500 km from Pärnu). With the exception of D. haemobaphes, all newly recorded species were represented by various life-stages and ovigerous females, indicating viable populations. Overall, our findings reveal that Ponto-Caspian amphipods are much more widespread in the Baltic area than previously known and highlight the need for more stringent monitoring.

Variations in parameters of extreme value distributions of water level along the eastern Baltic Sea coast

Time series of water level at several sites of the eastern Baltic Sea contain statistically almost impossible outliers. Their presence may considerably modify the appearance of the relevant extreme value distributions. We analyse systematically the variation in the parameters of the Generalised Extreme Value (GEV), Gumbel and Weibull distributions for extreme water levels along a 600 km coastal stretch in the north-eastern Baltic Sea. The parameters of the distributions are evaluated using a) three different methods, b) the output of two different ocean models and c) two versions of block maxima (for calendar years and for stormy seasons), and compared with similar parameters retrieved for measured water level time series at five sites. The location and scale parameters of GEV and Gumbel distributions vary smoothly by about ±30% from their average values. The variation is modest along the open shores of the Baltic Sea proper. All these parameters increase almost linearly along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The absolute values of the shape parameter of the GEV distribution are mostly <0.2. Different methods for evaluation lead to values of the same magnitude but with a different sign on the open shores of the Baltic Proper. This feature indicates that extreme water levels may follow radically different extreme value distributions in different locations of semi-enclosed seas.

Modification of closure depths by synchronisation of severe seas and high water levels

The closure depth indicates the depth down to which storm waves maintain a universal shape of the coastal profile. It is thus a key parameter of the coastal zones for a variety of engineering and ecosystem applications. Its values are commonly estimated with respect to the long-term mean water level. The present study re-evaluates closure depths for microtidal water bodies where the wave loads are highly correlated with the course of the water level. The test area is the eastern Baltic Sea. The closure depth is calculated for the eastern Baltic Sea coast with a resolution of 5.5 km and the vicinity of Tallinn Bay with a resolution of 0.5 km. While the classic values of closure depth are extracted from statistics of the roughest seas, the present analysis is based on single values of a proxy of the instantaneous closure depth. These values are evaluated from numerically simulated time series of wave properties and water levels. The water level-adjusted closure depths are almost equal to the classic values at the coasts of Lithuania but are up to 10% smaller at the Baltic Proper coasts of Latvia and Estonia. The difference is up to 20% in bayheads of the Gulf of Finland.

Long-term studies on sex and size structures of the non-native crab Eriocheir sinensis from Polish coastal waters

ABSTRACTThe Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis is a non-native species that appeared in European waters more than 100 years ago. Size and sex structure as well as biological condition of populations of Eriocheir sinensis sampled annually between 1999–2014 from the eastern Baltic Sea coast (1999–2007 Gulf of Gdansk and 2008–2014 Vistula Lagoon, Poland) were analysed. Males were dominant over females, with a sex ratio of 1.6:1. Carapace width of all collected specimens (n = 467) ranged from 33.3 to 89.1 mm and the mean values for specimens from Gulf of Gdansk and Vistula Lagoon were 62.4 ± 8.1 mm (n = 171) and 66.6 ± 7.7 mm (n = 296) respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in carapace width between males and females. It is important to note that there were no individuals with a carapace width less than 30 mm, which may indicate a lack of an established population of this species from the eastern Polish coast. The wet weight of all specimens ranged from 30.9 to 321.9 g and the mean values for all specimens from the Gulf of Gdansk and the Vistula Lagoon were 119.4 ± 45.2 g (n = 101) and 141.8 ± 47.9 g (n = 223), respectively. The wet weight of an individual was significantly correlated to carapace width and the exponent b reaching values close to 3 may indicate their good condition.

New Data on the Genus Sucinoptius (Coleoptera, Ptinidae) from Rovno Amber

Abstract Study of five examples of spider beetle inclusions from Rovno amber revealed that at least three of these spider beetles belong to the genus Sucinoptinus Bellés et Vitali, 2007, of them, S. rovnoensis sp. n. (most probably from Klesov) and S. brevipennis sp. n. from Dubrovitsa are described. S. rovnoensis is similar to the previously known S. bukejsi Alekseev in having the same general structure of pronotum and elytra, differing from it by the morphology of pronotal sides, which are only slightly rounded and practically not constricted near the base, whereas in S. bukejsi the sides are well rounded leaving a slight but clear constriction near the base. S. brevipennis is similar to S. bukejsi Alekseev and S. sucini Bellés et Vitali in having the same general structure of the prothorax, but differing from them in having much shorter elytra. Addition of these two new species to the two previously known, S. sucini, from the eastern Baltic Sea coast, and S. bukejsi, from Kaliningrad Region, indicates that the genus Sucinoptinus was much more diverse and widespread in Late Eocene forests than former reports suggested.

Spatial variability in the trends in extreme storm surges and weekly-scale high water levels in the eastern Baltic Sea

We address the possibilities of a separation of the overall increasing trend in maximum water levels of semi-enclosed water bodies into associated trends in the heights of local storm surges and basin-scale components of the water level based on recorded and modelled local water level time series. The test area is the Baltic Sea. Sequences of strong storms may substantially increase its water volume and raise the average sea level by almost 1m for a few weeks. Such events are singled out from the water level time series using a weekly-scale average. The trends in the annual maxima of the weekly average have an almost constant value along the entire eastern Baltic Sea coast for averaging intervals longer than 4 days. Their slopes are ~4cm/decade for 8-day running average and decrease with an increase of the averaging interval. The trends for maxima of local storm surge heights represent almost the entire spatial variability in the water level maxima. Their slopes vary from almost zero for the open Baltic Proper coast up to 5–7cm/decade in the eastern Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Riga. This pattern suggests that an increase in wind speed in strong storms is unlikely in this area but storm duration may have increased and wind direction may have rotated.

Separation of the Baltic Sea water level into daily and multi-weekly components

Storm surges and changes in the water volume of the entire sea, with typical time scales about a day and a few weeks, respectively, are the largest contributors to the water level variations at the eastern Baltic Sea coasts. Our analysis employs time series of sea levels numerically reconstructed using the RCO (Rossby Center, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) ocean model for 1961–2005. The distribution for the weekly-scale water level, defined as a running average over a certain time interval, has an almost Gaussian shape. For the 8-day average the distribution of the residual, interpreted as the frequency of occurrence of local storm surges of different height, almost exactly matches the exponential distribution that can be considered as reflecting the time between events of the underlying Poisson process. The distribution of the total water level contains a few outliers that often do not match the classical statistics. All extreme values (outliers) of water level are a part of the exponential distribution of storm surges for averaging intervals longer than about 3 days. Such separation of phenomena on different temporal scales is universal for the entire eastern Baltic Sea coast. The slopes of the exponential distribution for low and high water levels are different, vary markedly along the study area and provide a useful quantification of different coastal sections with respect to the probability of coastal flooding.

Piling underwater noise impact on migrating salmon fish during Lithuanian LNG terminal construction (Curonian Lagoon, Eastern Baltic Sea Coast)

Development of human activities in the Klaipėda strait generates a wide spectrum of underwater noise. In the fall of 2013, at the liquid natural gas terminal construction site in the shallow Curonian Lagoon area, an assessment of possible negative impacts on migrating salmon fish caused by pile driving noise was made. It is well known that impact hammer pile driving generates pulses with extremely high underwater noise levels. The obtained results proved that the pile hammering into the lagoon bottom generated pulses with a sound exposure level of 218dB re 1μPa2s @1m thus posing a risk to the migrating fish.

On the wave energy potential along the eastern Baltic Sea coast

We analyse the wave energy resource theoretically and practically available in a semi-sheltered shelf sea of moderate depth and with relatively severe but highly intermittent wave climate on the example of the Baltic Sea. The wave properties along the entire eastern Baltic Sea coast, from the Sambian (Samland) Peninsula to the eastern Gulf of Finland, are reconstructed numerically for 1970–2007 with a spatial resolution of 3 nautical miles (5.5 km) and temporal resolution of 1 h using the third generation wave model WAM. Owing to the shallowness of the sea (54 m on average) the finite-depth dispersion relation is used in the estimates of the wave energy resources in the nearshore, at depths of 7–48 m where the WAM model provides adequate results. The average wave energy flux (wave power) over the 38 years in question is about 1.5 kW/m (at selected locations up to 2.55 kW/m) in the nearshore regions of the eastern Baltic Proper but much smaller, about 0.7 kW/m, in the interior of the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga. The total theoretical wave energy resource in the entire study area is about 1.5 GW. The existing and proposed marine protected areas limit the available wave energy resource down to ∼840 MW. The production of grid energy is complicated because of extremely high intermittency and strong seasonal variation of the wave properties and frequent presence of sea ice. Although the wave energy resources are of obvious interest at some locations, their use for supplying power into the grid is questionable and probably not feasible in the conceivable future.

Simulated and observed reversals of wave-driven alongshore sediment transport at the eastern Baltic Sea coast

This paper aims to analyse the sensitivity of patterns of numerically simulated potential sediment transport along the eastern Baltic Sea coast. The study area extends from the Sambian (Samland) Peninsula to Pärnu Bay in the Gulf of Riga. The magnitudes of net and bulk transport depend largely on how the shoaling and refraction of the waves are resolved. The qualitative patterns of net and bulk sediment transport are almost insensitive with respect to the details of wave transformation in the nearshore and with respect to grain size. The overall counter-clockwise transport along the study area contains two persistent reversals along the coast of the Baltic Sea proper and two frequently recurring reversals along the eastern margin of the Gulf of Riga. Individual years with normal levels of wind speed may host completely different patterns of sediment transport. The location of the most persistent convergence and divergence areas of the net transport acceptably matches the granulometric composition of the nearshore seabed up to a few km from the shoreline.

Simulated wave-driven sediment transport along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea

Alongshore variations in sediment transport along the eastern Baltic Sea coast from the Sambian (Samland) Peninsula up to Pärnu Bay in the Gulf of Riga are analysed using long-term (1970–2007) simulations of the nearshore wave climate and the Coastal Engineering Research Centre (CERC) wave energy flux model applied to about 5.5km long beach sectors. The local rate of bulk transport is the largest along a short section of the Sambian Peninsula and along the north-western part of the Latvian coast. The net transport has an overall counter-clockwise nature but contains a number of local temporary reversals. The alongshore sediment flux has several divergence and convergence points. One of the divergence points at the Akmenrags Cape divides the sedimentary system of the eastern coast of the Baltic Proper into two almost completely separated compartments in the simulated wave climate. Cyclic relocation of a highly persistent convergence point over the entire Curonian Spit suggests that this landform is in almost perfect dynamical equilibrium in the simulated approximation of the contemporary wave climate.

Spatial variations of wave loads and closure depths along the coast of the eastern Baltic Sea

The closure depth is a key parameter in coastal processes as it characterizes the overall wave intensity in the nearshore and indicates the water depth down to which storm waves are able to maintain a universal shape of equilibrium coastal profiles. The properties and alongshore variations of the closure depth for the eastern Baltic Sea coast are evaluated at a coarse resolution (5.5 km) and for the vicinity of Tallinn Bay at a higher resolution (0.5 km). The study is based on numerical simulations of wind-generated wave fields. It is shown that, due to the small contribution of remote swell in the Baltic Sea, the typical ratio of wave heights in strongest storms and average wave heights is about 5.5, which departs considerably from that of open ocean coasts. A modification of the formula for the approximate calculation of the closure depth from the average wave height is derived. The estimates are based on four methods: from the wave heights of the strongest storms, from average wave heights based on a linear approximation, and using two versions of a second-order approximation. The greatest closure depth of up to 7.25 m was found to occur along the coast of the Baltic Proper near Hiiumaa, Saaremaa and the Kurzeme Peninsula. These areas also experience the largest wave intensities. Along other parts of the Baltic Proper coast the closure depth is typically 5-6 m, whereas in the Gulf of Riga and along the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland it is usually in the range of 3-4 m.

Linking wave loads with the intensity of erosion along the coasts of Latvia

Numerically estimated wave properties and the associated closure depth along the eastern Baltic Sea coast from the Sambian (Samland) Peninsula up to Parnu Bay in the Gulf of Riga are compared against the existing data about accumulation and erosion. Typical values of the closure depth are about 5-6 m (maximum 6.58 m) at the open Baltic Sea coast, 3-4 m in the Gulf of Riga and 2-2.5 m in semi-sheltered smaller bays. The areas of intense accumulation or erosion (especially the areas of their high variability) generally coincide with the sections, hosting high wave intensity, except for a few locations, dominated by anthropogenic impact. It is shown that the longshore variations in wave intensity (or closure depth) can be used to identify the location of major accumulation and erosion domains. The sections that host the largest change in the wave height along the coast reveal erosion or accumulation features, depending on the predominant wave approach direction.