Sunday, October 14, 2012

Oxygen Deficiency in the Baltic Sea



Oxygen deficiency in the Baltic Sea is at its highest due to an increase of nutrients and fertilizers.  Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have analyzed this ocean's climate since the 16th century.  85 million people live in the drainage basin of the Baltic and human population has a great impact on the marine environment.  Oxygen deficiency is essentially due to human activity. By combining new methods to reconstruct the historical climate and modern computer models, Hansson (a researcher from the Department of Earth Sciences) has been able to study in detail changes in water temperature, ice extent, river runoff, salinity and oxygen concentrations in the Baltic Sea over 500 years. The studies show clearly that the oxygen condition today cannot be compared with any other period since the 16th century, and that the present-day raised water temperature and limited ice extent are similar to situations that have occurred only twice previously. This thesis provides a positive possibility of change in the future. The only barrier would be a glitch or default in modern computers that could throw off the data and observations. I think this problem has an easy fix and can most likely be reversed 
for the better.  The solution was thought out thoroughly by Hansson and other researchers,  which gives it a higher chance to work.

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