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- Eriksson Hägg, Hanna, 1975-
(author)
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Nitrogen land-sea fluxes in the Baltic Sea catchment : Empirical relationships and budgets
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this thesis empirical relationships and modeling tools are used to describe the relationship between human activities and meso- and large scale riverine N fluxes from land to sea. On a large scale Paper I showed that by only having knowledge about human population size and runoff one can estimate the riverine export of DIN (r2= 0.76). In Paper II we included two other important anthropogenic N inputs, i.e. atmospheric deposition and primary emission (PE) from animals. In most of the catchments the PE from animals were larger than the PE from humans. Hence, development of livestock is important and increased animal protein consumption by humans might increase the riverine N export. Scenario analysis (Paper II) show that climate change is expected to both decrease and increase the riverine N export depending on which part of the catchment is modeled. In the southern and eastern parts of the Baltic Sea catchment there is large potential for N reductions from point sources (Papers III & V). The diffuse sources are more difficult to decrease and a reduction of mineral fertilizer does not always lead to reduced N loadings because the agricultural systems can buffer even a slight surplus (Paper III). There is inertia in the catchments which can be seen in for example in the northern part of the catchment. Here atmospheric N deposition is almost as high as in the southern part but the nitrogen flux from these rivers is not elevated. These northern river catchments have N exports of the same magnitude as the natural background (Paper IV), indicating that the atmospheric N deposition is retained in the system and probably taken up by N limited boreal forests. However, important reductions can be achieved in the agricultural sector by detailed management of the planted land and animal manure. The highest sensitivity is in catchments with high animal density and high specific discharge, primarily draining to Kattegat and Danish Straits (Paper II & IV).
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| 2. |
- Sun, Xiaole, 1983-
(author)
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Isotope-based reconstruction of the biogeochemical Si cycle : Implications for climate change and human perturbation
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The global silicon (Si) cycle is of fundamental importance for the global carbon cycle. Diatom growth in the oceans is a major sequestration pathway for carbon on a global scale (often referred to as the biological pump). Patterns of diatoms preserved in marine sediment records can reveal both natural and anthropogenic driven environmental change, which can be used to understand silicon dynamics and climate change. Si isotopes have been shown to have great potential in order to understand the Si cycle by revealing both past and present patterns of dissolved Si (DSi) utilization, primarily when diatoms form their siliceous frustules (noted as biogenic silica, BSi). However, studies using Si isotopes are still scarce and only a few studies exist where stable Si isotopes are used to investigate the biogeochemical Si cycle in aquatic systems. Therefore, this thesis focuses on developing analytical methods for studying BSi and DSi and also provides tools to understand the observed Si isotope distribution, which may help to understand impacts of climate change and human perturbations on marine ecosystems. The Baltic Sea, one of the biggest estuarine systems in the world, was chosen as the study site. BSi samples from a sediment core in Bothnian Bay, the most northern tip of the Baltic Sea, and diatom samples from the Oder River, draining into the southern Baltic Sea were measured and reported in Paper II and III, after establishing a method for Si isotope measurements (Paper I). Si isotope fractionation during diatom production and dissolution was also investigated in a laboratory-controlled experiment (Paper IV) to validate the observations from the field. The major result is that Si isotope signatures in BSi can be used as an historical archive for diatom growth and also related to changes in climate variables. There is isotopic evidence that the Si cycle has been significantly altered in the Baltic Sea catchment by human activities.
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| 3. |
- Alling, Vanja, 1978-
(author)
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Terrestrial organic carbon dynamics in Arctic coastal areas : budgets and multiple stable isotope approaches
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Arctic rivers transport 31-42 Tg organic carbon (OC) each year to the Arctic Ocean, which is equal to 10% of the global riverine OC discharge. Since the Arctic Ocean only holds approximately 1% of the global ocean volume, the influence of terrestrially derived organic carbon (OCter) in the Arctic Ocean is relatively high. Despite the global importance of this region the behavior of the, by far largest fraction of the OCter, the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in Arctic and sub-arctic estuaries is still a matter of debate. This thesis describes data originating from field cruises in Arctic and sub-arctic estuaries and coastal areas with the aim to improve the understanding of the fate of OCter in these areas, with specific focus on DOC. All presented studies indicate that DOCter and terrestrially derived particulate organic carbon (POCter) are subjected to substantial degradation in high-latitude estuaries, as shown by the non-conservative behavior of DOC in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf Seas (ESAS) (paper I) and the even more rapid degradation of POC in the same region (paper II). The removals of OCter in Arctic shelf seas were further supported by multiple isotope studies (paper III and IV), which showed that a use of 13C/12C in both OC and DIC, together with 34S/32S is a powerful tool to describe the sources and fate of OCter in estuaries and coastal seas. High-latitude estuaries play a key role in the coupling between terrestrial and marine carbon pools. In contrast to the general perception, this thesis shows that they are not only transportation areas for DOCter from rivers to the ocean, but are also active sites for transformation, degradation and sedimentation of DOCter, as well as for POCter. In a rapidly changing climate, the importance of these areas for the coupling between inorganic and organic carbon pools cannot be underestimated.
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| 4. |
- ZOU, HONGYAN, 1985-
(author)
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The measurement of chemical persistence in lakes using benchmarking techniques
- 2013
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The persistence of a chemical that indicates resistance to degradation is one of the core criteria for exposure and hazard assessment of chemicals. However, it is rarely measured in the real environment because of the lack of appropriate methods. The potential of a benchmarking approach to estimate the persistence of organic chemicals in lakes was evaluated by means of a simple multi-media box model. The application of the benchmarking approach to quantify key environmental properties affecting chemical fate was also introduced and applied to: 1. the overall air-water mass transfer coefficient; 2. the sediment burial rate. To know in which cases which system property needs to be quantified, the model was run to identify the dominant physical removal processes for a set of hypothetical chemicals. The maximum value of the persistence in lakes that can be measured due to the limitation of several uncertainties such as the precision of the analysis methods was presented and found to depend on both chemical properties and lake characteristics. By combining benchmarking with a good sampling strategy and analysis methods, it is possible to measure the persistence in a lake of the order of a month or longer for chemicals in large portions of the partitioning space. A framework of how to select an appropriate lake system to assess the persistence of chemicals was introduced.
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