There are ongoing efforts both nationally and internationally to help researchers with this. One example is the ECDS (Environment Climate Data Sweden) hosted at SMHI (Swedish Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology) which is set up to facilitate storage, publication and access to environmental

and climate data. Another is the ICES data repository (http://www.ices.dk/marine-data/guidelines-and-policy/Pages/Submitting-data-and-meta-data.aspx). Crizotinib nmr An ecosystem approach to the management of human activities (EAM) in the Baltic Sea is conducted in the BSAP and can be ensured by keeping the BSAP process operational and regular in order to be able to incorporate and integrate the impact of climate change: monitor changes, evaluate abatement and mitigation progress, include scientific advances and, if necessary, redefine objectives and targets (see also Hopkins, 2012 and Meier selleck products et al., 2014a). Baltic Sea models can be a tool to understand where in the transitional state we are and to identify gaps in monitoring programs and knowledge. The Baltic Sea is facing serious environmental problems today and the implications from projections of climate-change scenarios are that these problems will continue to be present in the future. This calls for strong management plans and ongoing discussions on both national and international

levels in order to guarantee common actions and sanction strategies for improvement of ecosystem health. Here the already established organs like HELCOM, BONUS research program and the Baltic Earth network of scientists (Meier et al., 2014b) can serve as arenas for the political procedures and international research collaborations to ensure that state-of-the-art knowledge

is used in the ongoing and regularly updated recovery plans. Models are essential tools to assess future changes, but to be able to validate these and to detect trends in the environment a good observational coverage must be guaranteed with respect to geographical area, parameter coverage, and long continuous time series. International coordination of the monitoring Atorvastatin programs can be a way to ensure cost effectiveness and good coverage. Another approach is to support the development of automatic systems for monitoring the sea, including the usage of ships of opportunity and to enable connections between ocean monitoring and research programs. Continued scientific development in certain areas will support the management procedure. This includes further improvement of model performance of the biogeochemical cycles, especially in the northern Baltic Sea, and with further studies of carbon cycles and alkalinity. Development of marine food web models with mechanistic linkages of climate-change impacts will be a necessary resource for understanding resilience and functioning of the ecosystems to the predicted changes and the subduction to multiple stressors.