Marine Environment Quality Assessment of the Skagerrak - Kattegat
Journal ol Sea Research 35 (1-3):1-8 (1996) MARINE ENVIRONMENT QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF THE SKAGERRAK - KATTEGAT RUTGER ROSENBERG1, INGEVRN CATO2, LARS FÖRLIN3, KJELL GRIP4 ANd JOHAN RODHEs 1Göteborg university, Kristineberg Marine Research Station, 5-450 34 Fiskebäckskil, Sweden 2Geological Survey of Sweden, Box 670, 5-751 28 Llppsala, Sweden 3cöteborg university, Department of Zoophysiology, Medicinaregatan 18, S-413 90 Göteborg, Sweden aSwedish Environment Protection Agency, S-106 48 Stockholm, Sweden ,Göteborg lJniversity, Department of Oceanography, Earth Science Centre, 5413 81 Göteborg, Sweden ABSTRACT This quality assessment of the Skagerrak-Kattegat is mainly based on recent results obtained within the framework ol the Swedish multidisciplinaiy research projekt 'Large'scale environmental effects and ecological processes in the Skagerrak-Kattegat'completed with relevant data from other research publications. The results show that the North Sea has a significant impact on the marine ecosystem in the Skagerrak and the northern Kattegat. Among environmental changes recently documented for some of these areas are: increased nutrient concentrations, increased occurrence of fast-growing fila- mentous algae in coastal areas affecting nursery and feeding conditions lor fish, declining bottom water oxygen concentrations with negative effects on benthic fauna, and sediment toxicity to inverte brates also causing physiological responses in fish. lt is concluded that, due to eutrophication and toxic substances, large-scale environmental changes and effects occur in the Skagerrak-Kattegat area. Key words: eutrophication, contaminants, nutrients, oxygen concentrations, toxicity, benthos, fish l.INTRODUCTION direction. This water constitutes the bulk of the water in the Skagerrak. A weaker inflow from the southern The Kattegat and the Skagerrak (Fig.
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