Estonian Islands Research Articles

Juustest ehted Eestis: museaalid ning kasutatud tehnikad / Hair jewellery in Estonia: museum objects and applied techniques

The making and wearing of hair jewellery in the manner described in the article is a phenomenon that spread in Europe and North America between the second half of the 18th century and the early 20th century, with a peak in the second half of the 19th century. In the context of Romanticism and the Victorian tendency to open up the human emotional world, hair found its place as a valued material in the jewellery of the middle-class mourner, as in one who had recently lost a loved one. Over time, hair jewellery began to transform into not just an expression of loss, but also simply a sign of longing and care. Not only did they adorn the wearer and preserve memory, but they also played an important role in demonstrating social relationships. The growing popularity of the tradition and its spread beyond the middle-class, brought changes both in the way jewellery was made and practised at home, as well as in its deeper meaning – it came to signify not only mourning, but also love and friendship. This article introduces the hair objects preserved in the collections of Estonian museums, their wearers and makers, and briefly covers the technology behind their manufacture. Since hair jewellery, or hair work, is a little-known craft in Estonia that can be studied mainly through artefactual sources and MuIS (Museum Information System, www.muis.ee) legends, the knowledge presented in the article is based more on my practice-based research than on the literature, focusing on the main question: what were hair jewellery and how were they made? The main method I used was reconstruction, the first step of which presupposed a technique-based closer examination of the objects in the museums. On a temporal scale, this was followed by fieldwork in the Swedish settlement of Våmhus, where the tradition of hair braiding has survived unbroken to the present day. The collected information became the basis for experimentation to identify pattern algorithms and technical methods for the production of complete pieces. According to the data I have collected, there are 132 hair objects in Estonian museums, in the following types: pocket watch chains, necklaces, bracelets, bonnets, brooches, earrings, a ring, a wreath, and a hair decoration. Of all the plaited objects, the pocket watch chains are by far the most common items, with a total of 68 in museums, showing that this type of object was the most widely used in Estonia. Both men and women wore pocket watch chains and, as in the rest of Europe, it was common in Estonia to give hair braids to the opposite sex as a token of affection, which is confirmed by the notes recorded during the collection of the objects. In MuIS, the accompanying legends of the hair objects mention 39 different place names as their place of origin, which shows that the jewellery was spread almost everywhere in Estonia. The exception are the Estonian islands, where during the process of information gathering I received only one positive response, which suggests that the wearing of these jewellery items did not reach similar popularity as on the mainland. According to English-language sources, hair jewellery making has been historically divided into four different techniques: table work – braids made by lifting bundles of hair on a braiding stand, plate work – making shapes from hair by moulding them into the appropriate position and gluing them to the jewellery, hair painting – painting pictures from ground hair mixed with glue, e.g. on ivory or porcelain jewellery, and fourth, hair-wrapped wire, i.e. moulding elements from hair braided with wire and making ornaments from them. Due to the lack of Estonian-language terminology, there was a practical need for vocabulary to describe everything involved. I started by creating a typology of the different patterns as a result of the observation of museum objects, on the basis of which I divided the patterns into six techniques, denominating them based on visual information. Patterns used in the braiding of the museum objects are mainly defined as table work, and they are the result of the interchanging of hair bundles on a braiding chain (the author’s term to distinguish between braiding stands of different shapes and functions from a circular rotating tool). Hair braiding technology offers abundant possibilities of pattern and form for making a variety of objects, resulting in a unique and subtle visualeffect and adding a very personal layer to an object with its uniqueness of material choice. At the same time, it is possible to accommodate the techniques used to a wide range of materials, achieving a completely different and innovative result with the same methods. Keywords: handicraft, braiding, hair work, hair jewellery, table-work

The Variability of Phytophthora infestans Isolates Collected from Estonian Islands in the Baltic Sea.

Knowledge of a pathogen's genetic variability and population structure is of great importance to effective disease management. In this study, 193 isolates of Phytophthora infestans collected from three Estonian islands were characterized over 3 years using simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker data complemented by information on their mating type and resistance to metalaxyl. In combination with SSR marker data from samples in the neighboring Pskov region of Northwest Russia, the impact of regional and landscape structure on the level of genetic exchange was also examined. Among the 111 P. infestans isolates from Estonian islands, 49 alleles were detected among 12 SSR loci, and 59 SSR multilocus genotypes were found, of which 64% were unique. The genetic variation was higher among years than that among islands, as revealed by the analysis of molecular variance. The frequency of metalaxyl-resistant isolates increased from 9% in 2012 to 30% in 2014, and metalaxyl resistance was most frequent among A1 isolates. The test for isolation by distance among the studied regions was not significant, and coupled with the absence of genetic differentiation, the result revealed gene flow and the absence of local adaptation. The data are consistent with a sexual population in which diversity is driven by an annual germination of soilborne oospores. The absence of shared genotypes over the years has important implications when it comes to the management of diseases. Such population diversity can make it difficult to predict the nature of the outbreak in the coming year as the genetic makeup is different for each year.

Skewed morph ratios lead to lower genetic diversity of the heterostylous Primula veris in fragmented grasslands.

Populations of heterostylous plant species are ideally composed of equal frequencies of two (distylous) or three (tristylous) morphologically different floral morphs. Intra-morph incompatibility helps to avoid inbreeding and to maintain genetic diversity, supporting plant fitness and long-term viability. Habitat fragmentation can lead to skewed morph ratios and thereby reduce the abundance of compatible mates. This, in turn, can result in a loss of genetic diversity. We tested whether the genetic diversity of heterostylous plants is affected by morph ratio bias using populations of the distylous grassland plant Primula veris in recently fragmented grasslands. We recorded morph frequencies and population sizes in 30 study populations of P. veris on two Estonian islands characterised by different degrees of habitat fragmentation. Examining variation of thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and heterostyly-specific genetic markers, we quantified overall and morph-specific genetic diversity and differentiation in these populations. Morph frequencies deviated more in smaller populations. Skewed morph ratios had a negative effect on the genetic diversity of P. veris in more fragmented grasslands. In the populations of better-connected grassland system, genetic differentiation among S-morphs was higher than among L-morphs. Our study shows that deviations from morph balance are stronger in small populations and have a negative impact on the genetic diversity of the distylous plant P. veris. Together with the direct negative effects of habitat loss and decreased population size on the genetic diversity of plants, morph ratio bias may intensify the process of genetic erosion, thus exacerbating the local extinction of heterostylous species.

Maltusliku ehk Lääne-Euroopa abiellumustüübi kõrgaeg Eestis

Maltusliku ehk Lääne-Euroopa abiellumustüübi kõrgaeg Eestis

No evidence for African swine fever virus DNA in haematophagous arthropods collected at wild boar baiting sites in Estonia.

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly pathogenic viral disease affecting all Suidae, with Ornithodoros moubata complex soft ticks acting as the biological arthropod vectors of the causative agent, African swine fever virus (ASFV). While ASFV is also transmissible via direct contact, pig products and fomites, other arthropods may be involved in virus transmission and persistence. Therefore, we checked various groups of blood-feeding arthropods collected during summer 2017 in wild boar habitats on the Estonian Island of Saaremaa for the presence of ASFV. Saaremaa had the highest ASF infection prevalences in Estonia in 2017, with an incidence of 9% among hunted wild boar. In addition to ASFV, we tested for other selected pathogens. In total, 784 ticks, 6,274 culicoid biting midges, 77 tabanids and 757 mosquitoes were tested as individuals or pools. No ASFV-DNA was found in any of them although about 20% of the tick samples tested positive for swine DNA. By contrast, tick-borne encephalitis virus-RNA was detected in one out of 37 tick pools (2.7%) and Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.-DNA in 20 individual ticks and 17 tick pools (25.2% of all samples). No Schmallenberg virus was detected in the Culicoides specimens. In conclusion, we found no evidence for Ixodes ricinus ticks, Culicoides punctatus and Obsoletus complex biting midges, Aedes spp., Anopheles spp. and Culiseta annulata mosquitoes, and Haematopota pluvialis tabanids playing a role in ASFV transmission in the wild boar population in Estonia.

Letters of Orthodox Priests about the German Occupation of Estonia during the First World War

During the invasion of the Baltic provinces between 1915 and 1918, a large swathe of territory and its population fell under German control: this included Orthodox parishes and their priests. The clergy and laity thus had to face many new challenges: the behaviour of occupation forces, material deprivations, and the actions of Lutheran clerical and secular elites in the new context. This article focuses on the response to the advance of the German armies in 1915 and 1916 into the Baltic. On the one hand, the article addresses the preparation and execution of the evacuation of the clergy and the rhetoric that underpinned the process of evacuation. On the other hand, it examines the problem of the church life under occupation. As evident from the sermons and articles published in the ecclesiastical press, the Germans represented a major threat to the Orthodox faith, clergy, and church property. Thus most Orthodox institutions were evacuated from the Baltic in 1915. Finally, the article discusses the position of the Orthodox Church during German occupation of the Estonian islands seized by the imperial German navy on 3 November 1917 from the perspective of parish priests. The article is based on the letters written by priests to the bishop of Riga and provides a complex picture of the German occupation, much of which differs from the representation of Germans in Russian war propaganda. Most priests represented the German forces as being relatively respectful towards churches and the clergy: their main complaint against the soldiers was the seizure of food, horses, and property, with the concomitant disruptions and discomforts this caused. The more serious threat to Orthodoxy, according to this evidence, came not from Germans but from the Lutheran clergy, who allegedly used the opportunity afforded by the invasion to undermine the Orthodox Church’s position. This publication will provide a unique insight into religion under occupation during the First World War, revealing the difficulties of maintaining everyday religious life in a multiconfessional region during and after invasion.

Eesti ülevõtmine Saksa okupatsioonivõimudelt novembris 1918

Abstract: The takeover of Estonia from the German occupying authorities in November of 1918
 Although the independent Republic of Estonia was declared on 24 February 1918, the German occupation that followed prevented the actual establishment of statehood. The chance for this did not come until November of that same year when Germany’s defeats on the Western Front and the November Revolution that broke out as the expression of worsening discontent brought an end to the First World War and German domination in Eastern Europe.
 The policy of the occupying authorities in Estonia was aimed at neutralising society, and in this way the Germans succeeded in preventing active resistance. Nevertheless, news of Germany’s military setbacks also reached Estonia and aroused some measure of hope for a better future. The cautious rebirth of political activity was noticeable in October of 1918. The way subsequent events took shape was nevertheless a surprise for both the German authorities and Estonian politicians.
 The breakthrough started with spontaneous riots that broke out in Tallinn on 7 November arising from food shortages. These rapidly snowballed into a city-wide strike. Political demands emerged alongside demands for improving the supply of food: demands for the withdrawal of German troops from Estonia and for transferring power to the institutions of local government that had been democratically elected in 1917. News of the November Revolution in Germany reached Tallinn at the same time, triggering unrest in the city garrison. Lieutenant General Adolf von Seckendorff, commander of the 68th Army Corps and the highest ranking local administrator, was forced to seek support from Estonian politicians. As a result of these events, the Estonian Provisional Government convened on 11 November and this date can be considered the starting point of the building of the independent Estonian state.
 The Provisional Government first had to take the reins of power into its own hands. This was accomplished quickly and smoothly in Tallinn and Northern Estonia, which were in the administrative area of the 68th Army Corps. General Seckendorff recognised the Estonian Provisional Government on 13 November. At the same time, Estonians took over the Provincial Government of Estonia, the Food Office, the judicial and prison systems, post offices, ports, etc. The Provisional Government appointed its proxies (deputies) in the counties and ordered the reconvening of the local county, municipal and rural municipal governments. The municipal police force (militia) that had been formed in 1917 was restored, to which the newly formed voluntary armed organisation known as the Kaitseliit [Defence League] was added. The representative popular assembly – the Maanõukogu – reconvened after an interval of a year on 20 November, and as fate would have it, Prime Minister Konstantin Päts arrived in Tallinn on the same day after being released from a camp for interned persons and took up his position at the head of the government.
 Yet in Southern Estonia in the territory occupied by the 60th Army Corps, the Germans refused to relinquish power, referring to the fact that they had not received orders to this effect. A particularly serious conflict appeared to be brewing in Tartu, where Estonians were preparing a large demonstration for pushing through their demands. The Provisional Government sent representatives to Riga, where August Winnig, Germany’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Baltic Provinces, resided, to resolve the situation that had developed. According to the agreements concluded with him, the Germans committed themselves to relinquishing power to Estonians throughout Estonian territory starting on 21 November. Even though further attempts to delay this were made in some places, from that point on, power in Southern Estonia as well was transferred into the hands of the Provisional Government’s deputies and the local governments. This process proceeded with probably the greatest difficulty on the Western Estonian islands, where a drought of information prevailed since they were cut off from the mainland. Only the future Petseri County (Setomaa) was not taken over and shortly thereaft er was subjected to the control of the armed forces of Soviet Russia.

Podpułkownik Rudolf Ksieniewicz (1898–1940) – kawaler Orderu Virtuti Militari i ofiara zbrodni katyńskiej. Przyczynek do biografii

Artykuł przedstawia sylwetkę ppłk. Rudolfa Ksieniewicza, jednego z oficerów wojska Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Urodzony na estońskiej wyspie Dago, po przeprowadzce z rodziną zamieszkał w głębi Rosji. Aby ulżyć finansowo rodzicom, wstąpił do armii rosyjskiej. Pnąc się po szczeblach kariery, został w końcu jednym z organizatorów Wojska Polskiego na Syberii. W wyniku walk dostał się do niewoli bolszewickiej, w której pozostawał do października 1921 r. W wolnej Polsce kontynuował karierę wojskowego, osiągając stopień podpułkownika i stanowisko I zastępcy dowódcy 45 pułku piechoty w Równem na Wołyniu. W 1939 r. po mobilizacji 13 Dywizji Piechoty pozostał w Równem, którego został komendantem garnizonu. Po wkroczeniu Armii Czerwonej 17 września dostał się do niewoli i wiosną 1940 r. został zamordowany przez Sowietów w bliżej nieznanych okolicznościach.

Käsitöölaager Craft Camp – viis aastat eesti kultuuri sõpruskonna kujunemist / Craft Camp – five years of expanding the circle of friends of Estonian culture

The Craft Camp programme was initiated by the Estonian Native Crafts Department of the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy in 2014. The one-week camp has taken place at the Olustvere School of Service and Rural Economics and Olustvere Manor. The core of the programme has evolved and matured over the years, and significant changes have also taken place in the quality and variety of workshops. Participants at this year’s camp could pick from workshops on a total of 27 different subjects. The choice of materials ranged from bone, leather and wool to precious gold embroidery thread and silver. Nine different workshops took place in parallel sessions every day of the camp. The participants were able to put together a package of courses to suit their interests and to enjoy the chance of raising their skills to a new level.
 The participants of the camps include skilled craftsmen, craft teachers and artisans, as well as novice young makers – there are courses available to suit every skill level. The youngest participant ever was eleven years-old, while the oldest was seventy-eight. The average participant is a lady in her fifties or sixties with the means to travel and to invest in her interest in crafts. As the workshopsoffered include metal-, wood- and glass-working, the camp has also attracted a dozen men over these five years.
 A high level of instruction is maintained by the lecturers of the Estonian Native Crafts Department. The workshops of Riina Tomberg and Kristi Jõeste are always held in high regard, and the last couple of years have also seen increased interest in silver work. The Native Crafts Master’s graduates continue to bolster the ranks of instructors. Our masters combine great technical skills with the ability to explain the general background. At the same time, the instructors also possess the confidence of a designer in adapting traditional technologies and materials to modern requirements, thereby making them more attractive to the audience. Even though the Craft Camp has a significant number of regular participants, the range of workshops is sufficient to keep them satisfied and there is always something new to be learned. The ranks of trainers continue to expand with new experts in heritage crafts technologies and other researchers taking up previously unfeatured subjects.
 In addition to participation in workshops and the chance to meet like-minded people, the Craft Camp also provides an evening programme of social events introducing Estonian culture. The participants can also take a one-day cultural trip to part of Estonia and visit museums and local craftsmen, and to sample local food as well.
 The Craft Camp’s most significant contribution over these five years has been the expansion of the circle of friends of Estonian culture. The camp has hosted participants from 21 different countries, including Japan, New Zealand, Bangladesh, and the Faroe Islands. A number of people with Estonian roots have also found their way back to the home of their ancestors. Many participants choose to stay in Estonia for longer than just the one week of the camp to explore Tallinn, the rich heritage culture of the Estonian islands, or life in small towns on their own. The skills and experience accumulated over the days spent at the camp enrich the minds of the participants and the instructors, and also those of the organisers.

Kihnu, Manilaid and Ruhnu: on Human-Nature relations on Estonian islands of the Gulf of Riga

This article aims to examine the Human/Nature relationships in coastal and island contexts, based on ethnographic field surveys conducted over the past four years on the islands of Kihnu, Manilaid and Ruhnu (Estonian part of the Gulf of Riga). It seeks to decipher the particular social-ecological system that has settled on these three islands, whose communities live with the sea on a daily basis. It will address both the food uses of the marine environment, their translation into the organization of communities (inclusion in the landscape, establishment of specific marine cosmogonies), but also the symbolism and representations related to the sea (intangible heritage).

Leading places on the map: Opening up leadership practices in two Estonian peripheral places

This paper sheds light on processes of place leadership that are enacted through visibility practices. While this strategy to “lead places on the map” has had some intended effects, such as increased tourism and lobby opportunities, this external orientation led to other consequences as well. First of all, it has led leadership to include a wider array of actors than the “traditional” place leaders that are bounded to a certain territory. Secondly, it points to the limitation of leadership in places that are in-between networks or “off the map”, thirdly, to the tension between a homogeneous outward image and the inherent heterogeneous nature of all places. Overall, this paper goes beyond a functionalistic understanding of place leadership and provides a more political understanding of how places are led. This contribution is based on fieldwork conducted on the Estonian island of Kihnu and the Estonian town of Järva-Jaani.

Reintroduction of sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus, in the Gulf of Riga, East-Central Baltic Sea

Abstract Atlantic sturgeon, Acipenser oxyrinchus Mitchill, inhabited and spawned in the territorial waters of Latvia from the early Neolithic. The A. oxyrinchus population in this area started to decline from the end of seventeenth century. By the twentieth century, just several sturgeon catches were documented. In 2012, Latvia joined the initiative to reintroduce native A. oxyrinchus. From 2013 to 2015, the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health, and Environment (BIOR) released 4,500 A. oxyrinchus juveniles aged 1+ and 2+. The majority of sturgeon juveniles released inhabit the Gulf of Riga and Pärnu Bay and marine areas among the Estonian islands. Nearly all of the sturgeon released exhibit remarkable growth. The absence of visible pathologies suggests that the A. oxyrinchus individuals are in excellent condition. Increases in size and the absence of visible pathologies also suggest that A. oxyrinchus has a sufficient food base. Additionally, results indicate that there is free space in the food web for native Atlantic sturgeon. Sturgeon is caught primarily in salmon traps and other commercial fishing nets deployed at depths of 4-10mor by anglers. While we do not have complete information about the fates (dead or alive) of all sturgeons caught, approximately half of them that were reported by fishers were released back into the sea alive and healthy.

Star Bride Marries a Cook: The Changing Processes in the Oral Singing Tradition and in Folk Song Collecting on the Western Estonian Island of Hiiumaa. II

Star Bride Marries a Cook: The Changing Processes in the Oral Singing Tradition and in Folk Song Collecting on the Western Estonian Island of Hiiumaa. II

Star Bride Marries a Cook: The Changing Processes in the Oral Singing Tradition and in Folk Song Collecting on the Western Estonian Island of Hiiumaa. I

Star Bride Marries a Cook: The Changing Processes in the Oral Singing Tradition and in Folk Song Collecting on the Western Estonian Island of Hiiumaa. I

Non-deposit system option for waste management on small islands.

This paper analyses waste management on small islands (on a global scale these are micro-islands). In the context of the paper, small islands are islands that have an area less than 50 km(2) The study presents an overview of the problems connected with waste transport from islands to the mainland. Waste generation on islands is very much related to tourists. If tourists do not handle waste properly, it will cause problems. Four small Estonian islands in the range of 3-19 km(2) are studied in detail. For these and other small islands, the main problem is the waste produced by tourists, or related to tourists and waste transport to the mainland. Currently, the local municipality has to arrange and finance waste transport. In fact, and based on the polluter-pays principle, the tourists should bear the cost of waste management. There are different tax options available in order to collect the money from tourists - waste tax, harbour tax, tourist tax, donations, environmental tax and others. The study results revealed that the best possible solution for Estonian islands may be a non-deposit system - including an additional charge on ferry ticket prices. The extra money should cover the costs of waste management and waste shipping. The tourists arriving in their own boats should pay a harbour tax, which includes a waste tax to compensate for the cost of waste management.

Wolves Recolonizing Islands: Genetic Consequences and Implications for Conservation and Management.

After a long and deliberate persecution, the grey wolf (Canis lupus) is slowly recolonizing its former areas in Europe, and the genetic consequences of this process are of particular interest. Wolves, though present in mainland Estonia for a long time, have only recently started to recolonize the country’s two largest islands, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. The main objective of this study was to analyse wolf population structure and processes in Estonia, with particular attention to the recolonization of islands. Fifteen microsatellite loci were genotyped for 185 individuals across Estonia. As a methodological novelty, all putative wolf-dog hybrids were identified and removed (n = 17) from the dataset beforehand to avoid interference of dog alleles in wolf population analysis. After the preliminary filtering, our final dataset comprised of 168 “pure” wolves. We recommend using hybrid-removal step as a standard precautionary procedure not only for wolf population studies, but also for other taxa prone to hybridization. STRUCTURE indicated four genetic groups in Estonia. Spatially explicit DResD analysis identified two areas, one of them on Saaremaa island and the other in southwestern Estonia, where neighbouring individuals were genetically more similar than expected from an isolation-by-distance null model. Three blending areas and two contrasting transition zones were identified in central Estonia, where the sampled individuals exhibited strong local differentiation over relatively short distance. Wolves on the largest Estonian islands are part of human-wildlife conflict due to livestock depredation. Negative public attitude, especially on Saaremaa where sheep herding is widespread, poses a significant threat for island wolves. To maintain the long-term viability of the wolf population on Estonian islands, not only wolf hunting quota should be targeted with extreme care, but effective measures should be applied to avoid inbreeding and minimize conflicts with local communities and stakeholders.

Logophoricity in Eastern Vidzeme

Eastern Vidzeme is an important, hitherto neglected, area for the study of logophoricity in the Circum-Baltic languages. This paper shows, on the one hand, that logophoricity in Latvian is not restricted to Latgalian dialects, but is almost fully consistent in the writings of the novelist Andrievs Niedra (1871–1942) originating from Tirza, and on the other hand, that Leivu Estonian, a moribund South Estonian language island in Northeastern Vidzeme between Gulbene and Alūksne, is the only Estonian variety having developed a logophoric pronoun.
 Given the high diversity of logophoricity in Latvian, it is important to study idiolects with large corpora, and written language deserves more study. Like Finnish dialects and Leivu Estonian, Niedra’s idiolect uses logophoric pronouns even for marking the report addressee in questions. Unlike in the Latgalian tales discussed by Nau (2006), logophoricity can be extended beyond the domain of report to thought. A distinction between allophoric (frame and report speaker are different) and autophoric reports (frame and report speaker are the same) is introduced. It is argued that logophoric pronouns are a non-deictic and noncoreference-based strategy to mark reports, that their function is not primarily reference tracking, and that logophoric pronouns in Latvian are constructionalized rather than grammaticalized.

Potential effects of different irrigation and drainage regimes on yield and water productivity of two potato varieties under Estonian temperate climate

To examine the potential effect of water management on potato yields, the crop model POMOD (POtato MODel) was used. The effects of irrigation, drainage and two-way water management (irrigation+drainage) were simulated with and without natural outflow (percolation to deeper soil layers and runoff). Calculations were performed for two Estonian mainland locations (subcontinental Tallinn for the period 1920–2011, continental Tartu, 1901–2011) and one insular, maritime region (Kuressaare, 1923–2011) as well as for an early and a late potato variety, ‘Maret’ and ‘Anti’, accordingly.In the reference series without water management, the average yields were 18% higher for the late variety compared to the early variety. The mean reference yield in Kuressaare was 8% lower than in mainland locations. The mean water productivity (WP) calculated per evapotranspiration was nearly 45kgmm−1ha−1 (dry mass), somewhat higher for the late variety compared to the early variety. The highest and most statistically significant (P<0.05) increase of yield was achieved from the two-way water management. In the case of natural outflow (water losses to deep percolation and runoff exist), the effect of irrigation prevailed over drainage in all locations. Without outflow, the effects of irrigation and drainage were comparable in the mainland, but the effect of drainage remained negative in Kuressaare. Generally, a positive effect on tuber yield occurred more often from irrigation than from drainage. However, in the case of restricted outflow in the mainland locations, the maximum yield gain from drainage exceeded the yield increase from irrigation by approximately two-fold. The extra yield depended on the amounts of irrigation or drainage by a second order polynomial, while the productivity of irrigated or drained water was, on average, markedly lower than the WP calculated per evapotranspiration, which had a linear relation. Irrigation and drainage water amounts under 50mm did not have any positive effect on yield.The need for irrigation is highest in maritime climate covering Estonian islands and Western and Northwestern coast. In these regions, irrigation increases the mean yield by 18–26% and decreases its variability two-fold. In continental locations, if natural outflow is restricted, implementation of two-way water management projects should be considered, as its effects on yield quantity as well as on stability exceed the sum of separate effects from irrigation and drainage.

Does thalli complexity and biomass affect the associated flora and fauna of two co-occurring Fucus species in the Baltic Sea?

On rocky shores, fucoids provide habitat, shelter and food for associated biota. In the northern parts of the Baltic, the Bothnian Sea, the new fucoid species Fucus radicans (Bergström et Kautsky) was recently described. This study compares the thallus complexity and size as well as quantified the abundance and biomass of epiphytic algae and invertebrate taxa of the two fucoid species F. radicans and Fucus vesiculosus L. from sympatric sites in the Bothnian Sea on the Swedish coast and around the Estonian island Saaremaa. We found that F. radicans was more complex than F. vesiculosus within the whole study range, but both species had a more complex thallus structure in the Bothnian Sea compared to Estonia. The complexity of host algae did not contribute to their associated flora and fauna taxon richness; instead, the size of thalli was a good proxy for associated communities. Specifically, on a biomass basis, F. vesiculosus displayed highest species richness and highest faunal abundance in the Bothnian Sea, whereas no such differences were found around Saaremaa, probably because both Fucus species had similar height around Saaremaa whereas F. vesiculosus grew much taller and larger in the Bothnian Sea. There were some unique associated macroalgal and invertebrate species that were found only on either of the fucoids, indicating the importance of separating them as species in surveys and monitoring.

A comparative analysis of two Early Palaeozoic marine impact structures in Estonia, Baltic Sea: Neugrund and Kärdla

Kardla and Neugrund are two Early Palaeozoic offshore impact structures located some 50 km apart along the Estonian coast of the Baltic Sea. They share many similarities but differing features are also found. The Kardla impact structure is located at the NE coast of Hiiumaa Island (58°58’N, 22°46’E). The inner crater has a 4 km rim-to-rim diameter and a c. 130 m high central uplift, surrounded by a ring fault, c. 12 km in diameter. The well-preserved buried inner crater is outlined in the landscape by a circular ridge of uplifted bedrock. The perimeter of the outer crater is outlined on the seafloor by a semicircular ridge of narrow shoals. The variable height of the rim wall (50–240 m above the crystalline basement level) and the asymmetric location of the inner crater is obviously a result of an oblique impact in a layered target and partial collapse of the rim wall. Shortly after the impact in a shallow epicontinental sea during Late Ordovician time (c. 455 My), calcareous biodetritic muds were deposited and the crater was buried. The Neugrund impact structure is located in the seabed at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland (59°20’N, 23°31’E). The inner crater has a 7 km rim-to-rim diameter and the outer limit of the structure passes through the Osmussaar Island to the southwest of the impact centre. The crater was buried in a shallow epicontinental sea with siliciclastic deposition shortly after the impact at Early Cambrian time, c. 535 My. It was partially re-exposed by erosion during Pliocene. The target had a three-layered composition: Precambrian metamorphic rocks covered by Ediacaran and Early Cambrian siliciclastic rocks (c. 150 m) and water (c. 100 m). The structure has been studied with seismoacoustic and sidescan sonar profiling, and by diving and sampling of submarine outcrops. Several hundred samples of impact breccias have been collected and investigated from erratic boulders distributed by glacial action in the west Estonian mainland, islands and sea floor.