Gerald Schernewski

Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research | IOW · Coastal Sea - Mangement & Planning

Hypoxia in coastal seas is a severe threat to marine ecosystems, with the Baltic Sea exhibiting the largest hypoxic areas worldwide. While perennial oxygen deficiency in the deep basins is a component of environmental assessments, seasonal oxygen deficiency in shallow areas is not routinely assessed. Current measurements alone cannot provide the sp...

Coastal lagoons and estuaries are hot spots to accumulate river basin-related plastic leakage. However, no official methodology exists to investigate their relatively short, rich in organic matter beaches, and the knowledge of pollution of lagoons is scarce worldwide. This study aimed to develop a methodology suitable for large micro (2–5 mm), meso...

The aim of this study is to assess existing conventional and hypothetical nature-based coastal-protection schemes using a comparative ecosystem service assessment, based on quantitative data and literature as well as on stakeholder views. We assessed three conventional groin systems and three building-with-nature scenarios including an expanded bea...

Although marine litter monitoring has increased over the years, the pollution of coastal waters is still understudied and there is a need for spatial and temporal data. Aerial (UAV) and underwater (ROV) drones have demonstrated their potential as monitoring tools at coastal sites; however, suitable conditions for use and cost-efficiency of the meth...

Urban development along coastlines is accompanied by habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat connectivity, particularly affecting the habitat and nursery function of estuarine areas for migratory marine species. Constructed floating wetlands, deployed as ‘stepping stones’ along urban coastlines where natural wetlands are missing, offer the potent...

We combine historical and recent monitoring data with modeling to get a better insight into water quality development of the large Oder/Szczecin Lagoon and especially the role of macrophytes. Data indicates that the system is eutrophic for centuries and a naturally eutrophic system. During the last decades, external nutrient loads decreased but kee...

Due to the increasing demand for alternative and supposedly more sustainable single-use tableware compared to conventional fossil-based plastic items, there now exists a broad variety of innovative new bio-based and biodegradable items. The aim of this research is to conduct a monitoring of the biodegradability of selected tableware items: polylact...

To combat the persistent eutrophication in coastal waters, sustainable sea-based measures are recommended. Yet, they are the subject of controversial stakeholder discussion, which hampers the implementation and planning process. The aim of this study is to evaluate if a participatory mapping (PM) approach and ecosystem service assessments (ESA) can...

Spatial assessments of ecosystem services (ES) are needed to fulfil EU policy requirements and to support practical applications of the ES concept in policy implementation. So far, ES assessments have largely focused on terrestrial systems. A joint approach for land and sea is especially lacking. To overcome this gap, we present a novel spatial hab...

As accumulation zones, sandy beaches are temporal sinks for beach wrack and litter, both often seen as nuisances to tourists. Consequently, there is a need for beach management and an enhanced political interest to evaluate their ecosystem services. We applied a new online multidisciplinary assessment approach differentiating between the provision,...

Aim was to assess whether a comprehensive approach linking existing knowledge with monitoring and modeling can provide an improved insight into coastal and marine plastics pollution. We focused on large micro- and mesoplastic (1–25 mm) and selected macroplastic items. Emission calculations, samplings in the Warnow river and estuary (water body and...

Northern European and Baltic Sea coastal water quality has long been recognized to be in diminished ecological state due to anthropogenic nutrient emissions. Multinational, regional, and national water management efforts, according to plans and regulations, have fallen short in the expected amelioration of eutrophication from diffuse nutrient sourc...

The EU-water framework directive (WFD) focuses on nutrient reductions to return coastal waters to the good ecological status. As of today, many coastal waters have reached a steady state of insufficient water quality due to continuous external nutrient inputs and internal loadings. This study focuses first on the current environmental status of mes...

Urban sewage water pathways seem most important for microplastics emissions to the Baltic Sea. We use microplastics emission data for the entire Baltic Sea region, calculate emissions for three sewage water related urban pathways and develop emission scenarios for the majority of microplastics particles. All plastics are divided into potentially fl...

Microplastic river emissions are known to be one of the major sources for marine microplastic pollution. Especially urbanized estuaries localized at the land-sea interface and subjected to microplastic emissions from various sources exhibit a high microplastic discharge potential to adjacent coasts. To adapt effective measures against microplastic...

Marine litter is a global problem that requires soon management and design of mitigation strategies. Marine litter monitoring is an essential step to assess the abundances, distributions, sinks and hotspots of pollution as well as the effectiveness of mitigation measures. However, these need to be time and cost-efficient, fit for purpose and contex...

Decision-support tools (DSTs) synthesize complex information to assist environmental managers in the decision-making process. Here, we review DSTs applied in the Baltic Sea area, to investigate how well the ecosystem approach is reflected in them, how different environmental problems are covered, and how well the tools meet the needs of the end use...

Most marine litter monitoring methods used on beaches focus on macro-litter (>25 mm) only and show shortcomings regarding smaller litter classes (<25 mm), especially at Baltic Sea beaches. Therefore, we used a sand rake method developed for large micro-(2-5 mm), and meso-(5-25 mm) litter to quantify the overall pollution status of Baltic Sea beache...

The bathing water microbiome consists of pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. However, the targets of the Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) focus exclusively on fecal pollution. This study aims to investigate fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), naturally thriving cyanobacteria, and Vibrio bacteria in...

Decision support tools (DSTs), like models, GIS-based planning tools and assessment tools, play an important role in incorporating scientific information into decision-making and facilitating policy implementation. In an interdisciplinary Baltic research group, we compiled 43 DSTs developed to support ecosystem-based management of the Baltic Sea an...

Urban sources, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), untreated wastewater (not connected to WWTPs), and especially combined sewer overflow systems (CSS) including stormwater are major pathways for microplastics in the aquatic environment. We compile microplastics emission data for the Baltic Sea region, calculate emissions for each pathway and devel...

OSPAR, Rake and Flood accumulation zone methods were applied at 29 beaches of the German and Lithuanian Baltic Sea coast (2011–2018) to monitor cigarette butt pollution. Also, butt pollution prevention measure - ballot bin, was tested. The number of cigarette butts was significantly higher in Germany than in Lithuania, but the percent of butts from...

Mussel farming, compared to marine finfish aquaculture, represents an environmentally friendly alternative for a high quality protein source and can at the same time be a measure to remove excess nutrients in eutrophic areas. As such, it is considered as a promising “blue growth” potential and promoted within the European Union. To expand mussel aq...

In this document, we present a synthesis of updated documented experience in the implementation of mussel cultivation for mitigating effects of eutrophication and parameter estimates to facilitate potential application in coastal water management plans. Included are descriptions of potential for nutrient extraction, ecological effects, and economic...

An important aim of the European Sustainable Development Strategy is to measure the state of sustainability in coastal communities. While numerous indicators have been developed to estimate a regions sustainability, they go largely unused, due to the difficulty in applying them over a broad region. In an effort to improve upon this situation, we ha...

The large southern Baltic lagoons (Curonian, Vistula and Szczecin Lagoon) face a similar challenge, the need for economic, especially touristic development. This development is hampered by poor water quality, namely eutrophication with regular algae blooms and low water transparency and often insufficient bathing water quality. Therefore, beaches a...

The Systems Approach Framework with an integrated Ecological-Social-Economic assessment was applied to address the issue of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) farming in the large Oder (Szczecin) Lagoon, southern Baltic Sea. Heavy eutrophication hampers the use of the lagoon and zebra mussel farming is considered as new use and potential measure t...

Sustainable management of coastal systems can only be achieved with an effective science-policy interface that integrates the three pillars of sustainable development: environmental protection, social progress and economic growth. The Systems Approach Framework (SAF) provides a structure to guide such a process by embracing the challenge of assessi...

Often, beach litter monitoring strategies focus only on macro-litter (> 25 mm) and do not distinguish between litter left at beaches and litter washed up onshore. We tested inexpensive and user-friendly methods to examine meso-litter (5-25 mm) and large micro-litter (2-5 mm) washed up on German sandy beaches and evaluated our methods regarding the...

Vibrio spp. are bacteria that inhabit fresh and marine waters throughout the world and can cause severe infections in humans. This study aimed to investigate the presence of potentially pathogenic Vibrio bacteria in the coastal waters of the Lithuanian Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. The results of cultivation on TCBS media showed that total ab...

Navigating the Future is a publication series produced by the European Marine Board providing future perspectives on marine science and technology in Europe. Navigating the Future V (NFV) highlights new knowledge obtained since Navigating the Future IV (2013). It is set within the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement and builds on the scientific b...

Navigating the Future is a publication series produced by the European Marine Board providing future perspectives on marine science and technology in Europe. Navigating the Future V (NFV) highlights new knowledge obtained since Navigating the Future IV1 (2013). It is set within the framework of the 2015 Paris Agreement2 and builds on the scienti c...

The applied Indicator-based Sustainability Assessment Tool (InSAT) serves as a user-friendly computer-aided tool to support coastal and marine management. Focus is on sustainable coastal development, including environmental, social, and economic aspects. We apply the InSAT to assess the changes in sustainability before, during, and after the implem...

A characteristic feature of lagoons and estuaries along the Baltic Sea is the dominance of reed (Phragmites australis) along their coasts. Reed wetlands are ecologically valuable ecosystems and play an important role for nutrient and matter cycling as well as for biodiversity. They provide a broad spectrum of ecosystem services and have been utiliz...

Coastal ecosystems are important ecosystem services (ES) suppliers. The degradation of these ecosystems jeopardizes the quality of ES provision. The Biodiversity 2020 Strategy aims at maintaining and restoring ES, although clear guidelines are missing on how to define the state to which ES should be restored. In this respect, synergies between ES a...

Coastal waters provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES), but are under intensive human use, face fast degradation and are subject to increasing pressures and changes in near future. As consequence, European Union (EU) water policies try to protect, restore and manage coastal and marine systems in a sustainable way. The most important EU dire...

High riverine nutrient loads caused poor water quality, low water transparency and an unsatisfactory ecological status in the Szczecin (Oder) Lagoon, a trans-boundary water at the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. Total annual riverine N (P) loads into the lagoon raised at the 20th century from approximately 14,000 t TN (1,000 t TP) to 115,000 t TN...

Finding suitable places to establish a mussel farm is challenging, as many aspects like mussel growth, clearance effect and the risk of low oxygen conditions, have to be considered. We present a tailor-made approach, combining field experiments with a spatially explicit model tool, to support the planning process. A case study was set up in the Ger...

Application of the unified methodology to monitoring of micro-, meso-, and macro-litter along the Russian, Estonian, and German marine beaches of the Baltic Sea is the main goal of a new project co-funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the Estonian Research Council, and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in frames...

Bathing water quality plays a key role for public health, is highly important for recreational tourism and therefore monitored in the EU-Directive 2006/7/EC. To identify pollution hot spots, sources and impacts of the directive-change in 2006, including a change of indicator organisms, we evaluated monitoring data of the past 15 years, collected ow...

The European Biodiversity Strategy asks EU Member States for an assessment, mapping and valuing of Ecosystem Services (ES). While terrestrial ES concept is advanced and different tools are available, they are largely lacking for coastal and marine systems. We develop a stepwise methodological process to assess ES in coastal and marine systems which...

Stakeholder involvement plays a crucial role within Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) and is considered beneficial for gaining trust and knowledge and reducing conflicts. Nevertheless, disagreement and opposition among stakeholders and lack of manager experiences in participatory approaches have caused delays in ICM processes. A major challenge i...

In inner coastal waters such as lagoons, which are very turbid and rich in suspended particles, the survival of fecal pollution microorganisms may find favorable environments. In order to better characterize the sources and dynamics of fecal pollution in a strongly turbid environment, in situ observations were made in the Curonian Lagoon. A combina...

Markgrafenheide-Hütelmoor covers a total area of 1000 ha (about 490 ha are coastal moor) and a coastline of about 6 km. This touristy area belongs to the city of Rostock in Germany. As response to sea level rise and heavy coastal erosion, the small seaside resort Markgrafenheide received a comprehensive storm surge protection until 2006. Subsequent...

Over 350 European Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) ‘best practice’ case studies are documented in the OURCOAST online public database, to ensure that lessons learned from experiences and practices are shared and improve coastal management practices. However, concrete criteria for ‘best practice’ are missing and a critical evaluation of the...

The article Assessing coastal management case studies around Europe using an indicator based tool, written by Donalda Karnauskaitė, Gerald Schernewski, Johanna Schumacher, Rebecca Grunert, and Ramūnas Povilanskas, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal.

The assessment of ecosystem services, the benefits humans obtain from ecosystems, is a worldwide topic of growing interest, but examples addressing coastal and marine waters are still a small minority. In this study, we carry out an expert based ecosystem service assessment for a concrete case study, the Szczecin (Oder) Lagoon located at the German...

The natural conservation of coastal lagoons is important not only for their ecological importance, but also because of the valuable ecosystem services they provide for human welfare and wellbeing. Coastal lagoons are shallow semi-enclosed systems that support important habitats such as wetlands, mangroves, salt-marshes and seagrass meadows, as well...

http://doi.org/10.31988/SciTrends.11317

We document and analyse the implementation process of a large combined coastal protection realignment and nature protection rewetting scheme, covering about 1000 ha at the German Baltic coast. The assessment reviews local planning documents, includes a media analysis, a tourist survey, stakeholder interviews and we provide criteria for measuring su...