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Status of Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea
Open accessAbstract
The brackish Baltic Sea hosts species of various origins and environmental tolerances. These immigrated to the sea 10,000 to 15,000 years ago or have been introduced to the area over the relatively recent history of the system. The Baltic Sea has only one known endemic species. While information on some abiotic parameters extends back as long as five centuries and first quantitative snapshot data on biota (on exploited fish populations) originate generally from the same time, international coordination of research began in the early twentieth century. Continuous, annual Baltic Sea-wide long-term datasets on several organism groups (plankton, benthos, fish) are generally available since the mid-1950s. Based on a variety of available data sources (published papers, reports, grey literature, unpublished data), the Baltic Sea, incl. Kattegat, hosts altogether at least 6,065 species, including at least 1,700 phytoplankton, 442 phytobenthos, at least 1,199 zooplankton, at least 569 meiozoobenthos, 1,476 macrozoobenthos, at least 380 vertebrate parasites, about 200 fish, 3 seal, and 83 bird species. In general, but not in all organism groups, high sub-regional total species richness is associated with elevated salinity. Although in comparison with fully marine areas the Baltic Sea supports fewer species, several facets of the system's diversity remain underexplored to this day, such as micro-organisms, foraminiferans, meiobenthos and parasites. In the future, climate change and its interactions with multiple anthropogenic forcings are likely to have major impacts on the Baltic biodiversity.
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![Figure 1 Map of macroregions and regions of the Baltic Sea (sensu [2]). Salinity calculated from [195].](/paper-figures/d36394ee47dc491fa49b6ac2df0b7b03/status-of-biodiversity-in-the-baltic-sea-figure-1.jpg)

![Figure 3 Annual zooplankton (A) biomass and (B) production by taxa in Gdansk Bay in the 1980s (modified from [196]).](/paper-figures/d65e0b495c384c568f0b841d4f3dee57/status-of-biodiversity-in-the-baltic-sea-figure-3.jpg)


![Figure 6 Spawner biomass of cod, herring, and sprat in the Baltic Sea (ICES management subdivisions 25–32, 25–29 (excluding the Gulf of Riga) and 22–32, respectively). Data: [137].](/paper-figures/f1d40550d84a45f29b74e8710f050f13/status-of-biodiversity-in-the-baltic-sea-figure-6.jpg)
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“especially in highly contaminated, low salinity environments such as the Baltic where both marine and freshwater organisms are subject to a high degree of environmental stress (Ojaveer et al., 2010).”
From Studies of the Effects of Microplastics on Aquatic Organisms: What Do We Know and Where Should We Focus Our Efforts in the Future? (2018) · cites this paper as Ojaveer et al., 2010
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Metadata
- Authors
- Ojaveer, H., Jaanus, A., MacKenzie, B. R., Martin, G., Olenin, S., Radziejewska, T., Telesh, I., Zettler, M. L., & Zaiko, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Tartu (EE)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
- Klaipėda University (LT)
- University of Szczecin (PL)
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Ojaveer, Henn
- Jaanus, Andres
- MacKenzie, Brian R.
- Martin, Georg
- Olenin, Sergej
- Radziejewska, Teresa
- Telesh, Irena
- Zettler, Michael L.
- Zaiko, Anastasija
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2010-09-01
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e12467
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2931693
- OpenAlex
- W2146338434
- Cited by
- 362
- References
- 149
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 11.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Technical University of Denmark, DTU Orbit (Technical University of Denmark, DTU) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- European Commission (EU-FP7, 212085)
- Total Foundation
- Russian Academy of Sciences
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Biology and Ecology Research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and environmental studies
- Keywords
- species richness, brackish water, endemic species, species immigration, long-term ecological monitoring, plankton, benthos, fish, salinity, Kattegat, climate change impacts, anthropogenic impacts, parasites, meiofauna, foraminifera
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Europe, Fishes, Marine Biology, Oceans and Seas, Phytoplankton, Population Dynamics, Seawater, Zooplankton, Biodiversity, History, 19th Century, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century
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