BALTIC GAS

The project will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists with the goal to:

• quantify and map the distribution and flux of methane in the Baltic Sea
• analyze the controls on the relevant key biogeochemical processes
• integrate seismo-acoustic mapping with geochemical profiling
• model the dynamics of Baltic Sea methane in the past (Holocene period), present (transport-reaction models), and future (with predictive scenarios)
• identify hot-spots of gas and potential future methane emission in a Baltic database available for national authorities and scientists.

Key areas of study will include deep basins (e.g. Bornholm and Arkona Basin), shallow waters (e.g. Mecklenburg Bay), fjords (e.g. Himmefjärden) pockmark areas (e.g. Gdansk Bay, Stople Channel, Gulf of Finland) and low salinity waters (Bothnian Bay).

The goal of the project will be a new understanding and quantitative synthesis of the dynamics and budget of methane in the seabed, an important component of the Baltic ecosystem response to natural and human-induced impacts. This will be achieved through the acquisition of new key data by advanced technology and novel combinations of approaches combines with mining of existing data.

A common open-access database and GIS-based mapping will be made available to the national authorities of Baltic Sea sates as an instrument to understand the significance of methane fluxes and to predict gas hazards. A novel combination of seismo-acoustic mapping of gas with geochemical data calibration will provide the first quantitative dataset on methane fluxes in a coastal sea based on high spatial coverage of both hotspots and background levels. The project aims to develop a predictive model of gas accumulation and emission under realistic scenarios of climate change and eutrophication, which will improve the knowledge base for necessary future policy actions.