Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management

One of the most serious and challenging environmental problems facing Sweden is eutrophication of its surrounding seas as a result of excessive human emissions of plant nutrients. In 1999 the Swedish parliament (Riksdag) set fifteen environmental quality objectives for the nation, including the objective of Ingen Övergödning, translated as “Zero Eutrophication,” but more literally “No Over-Enrichment”. Specifically, the objective is: “Nutrient levels in soil and water must not be such that they adversely affect human health, the conditions of biological diversity or the possibility of varied uses of land and water.” It is further specified that: “The intention is for this environmental quality objective to be achieved within one generation.” In 2001, the Riksdag established interim targets, strategies and measures to facilitate reaching the national environmental quality objectives, which were revised in 2005. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA 2007) recently conducted a second in-depth evaluation of the Zero Eutrophication environmental quality objective, including progress in achieving the interim targets. 

As part of its continued efforts to assess the state of eutrophication and progress toward its alleviation, the SEPA convened this international expert evaluation of eutrophication in the seas and coastal environments along the west coast of Sweden. It follows an earlier expert evaluation of eutrophication in all Swedish seas, which, while briefly addressing the western seas, focused largely on the Baltic Sea and its coastal environments (Boesch et al. 2006). That evaluation concentrated on the controversies regarding the controls of nitrogen versus phosphorus emissions. The SEPA used that report to develop standpoints to guide its actions to combat eutrophication (SEPA 2006). 

This present expert evaluation was charged to evaluate the measures taken so far to achieve the Zero Eutrophication objective for the Danish Sounds, the Kattegat and the Skagerrak and the Swedish coastal environments bordering these waters and to recommend future strategies to counteract eutrophication there. These western seas have important differences from the Baltic Sea, including higher salinity and the influence of tides and the dynamic forces of the North Sea. As in the Baltic Sea, considerations have to be given to the sources and transport processes affecting nutrient delivery into these international seas, including from the Baltic and North Seas. 

An expert panel was assembled by the SEPA to perform the evaluation. It consisted of five members, including one each from the neighboring countries of Denmark and Norway. Dr. Donald Boesch of the United States was invited by SEPA to chair the panel. The panel met from 8-13 August, 2008, in Marstrand, an island in the coastal archipelago along Sweden’s southern Skaggerak coast. Dr. Per Jonsson was the SEPA coordinator and Mats Blomqvist assisted the panel in accessing data and information and producing graphics. On 10 August, several Swedish experts met with the panel, presenting their recent findings and participating in discussion of issues before the panel. These included Drs. Suzanne Baden, Odd Lindahl, Leif Pihl, Johan Rodhe, and Rutger Rosenberg of Gothenburg University and Dr. Daniel Conley of Lund University. In addition to this consultation, the panel reviewed the findings of more than 100 scientific papers and reports, including very recent publications and national and regional assessments. A draft report was prepared while the panel worked at Marstrand and subsequently refined through correspondence. 

The expert panel specifically considered: the status and sources of anthropogenic emissions of nutrients, including trans-boundary sources; the extent of eutrophication and the nutrients responsible for it; the effects of eutrophication on the ecosystem and natural resources; the confounding influence of other factors such as climate variability and change and fishing activities; the effectiveness of the present Swedish strategy to counteract eutrophication and prognosis for the future; and the adequacy of scientific research, monitoring and assessment to support its execution.