Therefore regional climate models have been used to dynamically downscale the global scenarios in order to increase the resolution. A multi-model, multi-scenario approach allows for estimations of uncertainties in the projections. The marine environment and the living marine resources in the Baltic Sea may significantly respond to changes in nutrient availability as well as temperature, salinity and wind climate, which influence salt-water inflows and stratification. • Temperature changes. One of the more robust modeling results from the scenarios of climate change for the Baltic Sea region is that the air temperature

will rise considerably (BACC I Author Team, 2008, BACC II Author Team, 2014, IPCC, 2007 and IPCC,

2013). Akt activation Ensemble projections have implied an increase of air temperatures between 4 and 6 °C by the end of the 21st century (Kjellström et al., 2011). This will influence the marine environment in many ways. The oxygen levels in the surface waters will decrease, this website since the solubility of oxygen is dependent on temperature. Increasing temperatures also lead to decreased solubility of CO2; however, the resulting effect on pH is small (Omstedt et al., 2010). Warmer water will also have an effect on phytoplankton growth and organic material mineralization rates, which both increase with increasing temperature. The river flow into the Baltic Sea is also a major factor in the variability of nutrient loads since there is a strong relationship between the magnitudes of river flow and nutrient input (e.g. Grimvall and Stålnacke, 2001). Less input from the nutrient rich rivers in the south/south-east might to some degree alleviate eutrophication. However, climate change can also impact the nutrient concentrations in the rivers due to increased denitrification and mineralization in warmer soils and more

flush-outs of the soils through heavy rain falls (Arheimer et al., 2012). Concentrations are also likely to change due to changed land use in a warmer climate (Arheimer et al., 2012 and Voss et al., 2011). Projections of mean future nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea selleck kinase inhibitor are shown in Fig. 2, where the future scenarios combine climate change with the nutrient-emission scenarios of BSAP, a “worst-case-scenario”, Business-As-Usual (BAU), which is assuming an exponential growth of agriculture in all Baltic Sea countries (HELCOM, 2007 and Gustafsson et al., 2011). This can be compared to the reference case, REF, where nutrient loads are the same as today. The approach is further described in Meier et al., 2011 and Meier et al., 2012a. In the BAU scenario the pelagic and sediment pools will increase substantially.