Invasive species in the Baltic Sea A model study of plankton transport

Type: Report
Series: OCEANOGRAPHY 122
Author: Anders Höglund
Published:

Summary

In this report, an ensemble of releases of passive particles at locations close to some selected ports around the Baltic Sea and Kattegat are modelled. The particles are transported with the currents. Maps of particle densities at 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 52 weeks after the release are presented.
The results indicate that many basins are narrow enough for the particles to cross from shore to shore within two weeks, e.g., in the Kattegat, Gulf of Finland and Kvarken. The results also show an asymmetry in the transport between different locations, which means that particles released from one location to another require substantially more time to reach the other location, if at all, than particles going in the opposite direction. Some potential barriers to transport are identified and discussed.