HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan - A regional programme of measures for the marine environment based on the Ecosystem Approach

The Helsinki Commission (HELCOM) Baltic Sea Action Plan, adopted by the coastal countries of the Baltic Sea and the European Community in November 2007, is a regional intergovernmental programme of measures for the protection and management of the marine environment explicitly based on the Ecosystem Approach. The Action Plan is structured around a set of Ecological Objectives used to define indicators and targets, including effect-based nutrient input ceilings, and to monitor implementation. The Action Plan strongly links Baltic marine environmental concerns to important socio-economic fields such as agriculture and fisheries and promotes cross-sectoral tools including marine spatial planning. Due to complementarities with the European Union (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Action Plan is in essence a pilot for this process without neglecting the important role of the Russian Federation - the only Baltic coastal country not a member of the EU.     

Palaeolimnology of Lake Piene-Kuuppalanlampi (Kurkijoki, Karelian Republic, Russia): isolation history, lake ecosystem development and long-term agricultural impact

The post-glacial history of Lake Pieni-Kuuppalanlampi, western Lake Ladoga region, was studied by means of stratigraphic pollen and diatom analyses. Diatoms were analysed to track the isolation history of the basin and the limnological effects of the early land-use phases indicated by pollen analysis. Chrysophycean stomatocysts and Isoëtes spores were also employed in the limnological reconstructions. Sediment dating was provided by six conventional radiocarbon dates.The lower part of the 370-cm long sediment sequence represents early Holocene, large lake conditions: the (freshwater) Yoldia and Ancylus stages of the Baltic basin, with a short-term lagoonal or isolation phase at the end of Yoldia. The basin was isolated due to Ancylus lake regression at 9785 cal B.P. For the small-lake sequence (0–250 cm) we used diatom inferences (WA-method) for hindcasting water chemistry. The post-isolation limnology of Pieni-Kuuppalanlampi reflects the development of vegetation on its small hill-top catchment. In its early development, the lake was mesotrophic, but became more acidic (pH about 6) and oligotrophic after the decline of temperate hardwood trees and the spread of spruce to the area after around 5000 B.P. The lake ecosystem appears to have reacted sensitively to agricultural land-use in the catchment from AD 400–800 onwards: inferred total phosphorus levels and pH both rise during these periods.     

Overview of groundwater sources and water-supply systems,and associated microbial pollution,in Finland,Norway and Iceland

The characteristics of groundwater systems and groundwater contamination in Finland, Norway and Iceland are presented, as they relate to outbreaks of disease. Disparities among the Nordic countries in the approach to providing safe drinking water from groundwater are discussed, and recommendations are given for the future. Groundwater recharge is typically high in autumn or winter months or after snowmelt in the coldest regions. Most inland aquifers are unconfined and therefore vulnerable to pollution, but they are often without much anthropogenic influence and the water quality is good. In coastal zones, previously emplaced marine sediments may confine and protect aquifers to some extent. However, the water quality in these aquifers is highly variable, as the coastal regions are also most influenced by agriculture, sea-water intrusion and urban settlements resulting in challenging conditions for water abstraction and supply. Groundwater is typically extracted from Quaternary deposits for small and medium municipalities, from bedrock for single households, and from surface water for the largest cities, except for Iceland, which relies almost entirely on groundwater for public supply. Managed aquifer recharge, with or without prior water treatment, is widely used in Finland to extend present groundwater resources. Especially at small utilities, groundwater is often supplied without treatment. Despite generally good water quality, microbial contamination has occurred, principally by norovirus and Campylobacter, with larger outbreaks resulting from sewage contamination, cross-connections into drinking water supplies, heavy rainfall events, and ingress of polluted surface water to groundwater.     

Model studies on the effect of nitric acid vapour on cirrus cloud activation

The effect of elevated nitric acid concentrations on cloud particle number concentrations and sizes of mixed phase cirrus cloud (containing both supercooled liquid and frozen ice particles) is studied using a detailed multicomponent condensation model. Our model calculations suggest that high nitric acid volume mixing ratios (VMRs), corresponding to upper tropospheric measurements, can increase the ice crystal number concentrations substantially especially in the case of freezing of non-activated solution droplets (as opposed to freezing of supercooled cloud droplets). This is due to increased droplet sizes caused by nitric acid absorption and the resulting uptake of water.     

River floodplain relocations and the abandonment of Aborigine settlements in the Upper Amazon Basin: A historical case study of San Miguel de Cunibos at the Middle Ucayali River

Lathrap introduced the concept of lateral channel migration of the meandering rivers as a potential factor for human community dynamics in the Upper Amazon. Nevertheless, the dynamics considered by Lathrap is restricted to particular floodplains. He payed no attention to a large scale fluvial phenomenom: the sudden river relocations (avulsion), which also profoundly affected the Upper Amazon cultures. We present here a historical case study analyzing a river floodplain avulsion at the Middle Ucayali River during the late 1700s, causing the abandonment of a settlement called San Miguel de Cunibos and probably leading to the massive migration of the Cunibos Indians. Furthermore, we argue that similar situations have frequently occurred during the human history of the Upper Amazon, and thus these fluvial phenomena should be taken into consideration in future archaeological and ethnohistorical studies. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Protostellar classification using supervised machine learning algorithms

Classification of young stellar objects (YSOs) into different evolutionary stages helps us to understand the formation process of new stars and planetary systems. Such classification has traditionally been based on spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis. An alternative approach is provided by supervised machine learning algorithms, which can be trained to classify large samples of YSOs much faster than via SED analysis. We attempt to classify a sample of Orion YSOs (the parent sample size is 330) into different classes, where each source has already been classified using multiwavelength SED analysis. We used eight different learning algorithms to classify the target YSOs, namely a decision tree, random forest, gradient boosting machine (GBM), logistic regression, naïve Bayes classifier, \(k\)-nearest neighbour classifier, support vector machine, and neural network. The classifiers were trained and tested by using a 10-fold cross-validation procedure. As the learning features, we employed ten different continuum flux densities spanning from the near-infrared to submillimetre wavebands (\(\lambda= 3.6\mbox{--}870~\upmu\mbox{m}\)). With a classification accuracy of 82% (with respect to the SED-based classes), a GBM algorithm was found to exhibit the best performance. The lowest accuracy of 47% was obtained with a naïve Bayes classifier. Our analysis suggests that the inclusion of the \(3.6~\upmu\mbox{m}\) and \(24~\upmu\mbox{m}\) flux densities is useful to maximise the YSO classification accuracy. Although machine learning has the potential to provide a rapid and fairly reliable way to classify YSOs, an SED analysis is still needed to derive the physical properties of the sources (e.g. dust temperature and mass), and to create the labelled training data. The machine learning classification accuracies can be improved with respect to the present results by using larger data sets, more detailed missing value imputation, and advanced ensemble methods (e.g. extreme gradient boosting). Overall, the application of machine learning is expected to be very useful in the era of big astronomical data, for example to quickly assemble interesting target source samples for follow-up studies.     

North Atlantic sea surface temperatures and their relation to the North Atlantic Oscillation during the last 230?years

August Sea Surface Temperatures (aSSTs) based on fossil diatom assemblages are generated with 2?year average resolution from a 230-year-long sediment core (Rapid 21-12B), from the Reykjanes Ridge in the subpolar North Atlantic. The results indicate a warming trend of ~0.5°C of the surface waters at the Reykjanes Ridge for the last 230?years. Superimposed on this warming trend there is a multidecadal to decadal aSST variability of up to 1°C. The interval from the 1770s to the 1830s represents the coldest period, whereas ~1860?C1880 represents the warmest period during the last 230?years. The last 25?years is characterized by a warming trend showing strong decadal aSST variability with several warm years, but also the coldest years since the 1820s. The time of these cold years in the mid-1970s, -1980s and -1990s correspond with the documented great salinity anomalies (GSA) in the North Atlantic suggesting increased fluxes of cold, low-salinity waters from the Arctic during the last decades. The aSST record and the August North Atlantic Oscillation (aNAO) index show similar multidecadal-scale variability indicating a close coupling between the oceanic and atmospheric patterns. The aSST record shows a negative correlation with the aNAO indicating cold aSST during the positive aNAO trend and vice versa. Results suggest that the wind driven variation in volume fluxes of the North Atlantic surface waters could be the major mechanism behind the observed relationship.     

Diversity of meiofauna in the lacustrine profundal zone: Bathymetric differences and influence of environmental factors

The diversity and species richness of total meiofauna, Harpacticoida and Oligochaeta in relation to depth and other environmental variables were studied at nine stations and in two profundal depth zones in Lake Päijänne which includes both oligotrophic and eutrophicated or organically loaded areas.Diversity was on average higher in the upper part of the profundal zone than at maximum depths. This may show that the greater temporal stability in temperature at greater depths does not surpass the effect of the lower temporal stability in oxygen content. The productivity factor may be a more important reason for the bathymetric difference in diversity than the stability factor. Diversity in the lower profundal zone shows a negative correlation with variables indicating pollution while in the upper profundal zone a positive one with those variables, thus emphasizing the importance of the production factor in determining diversity in the upper profundal. Diversity was higher within the oligochaetes than within the harpacticoids, which may imply that oligochaetes have a longer evolutionary history as part of the lacustrine benthic system.Of the environmental variables, phytoplankton biomass had the highest influence on total diversity in the lower profundal zone, oxygen being next in importance. The sedimentation of organic matter was most important in the upper part of the profundal zone, where oxygen did not have any significant effect on diversity. Some explaining factors determining bathymetric diversity differences are discussed in relation to the theoretical expectations.