Sustainable Nutrient Management Practices In the Gulf of Bothnia Region

The Gulf of Bothnia is on a global scale a unique brackish water area that is separated from the rest of the Baltic sea by a ridge formation at the bottom of the sea. So far, the water quality of the Gulf of Bothnia has been better than in the rest of the Baltic Sea but it has been estimated that climate change will affect the Gulf of Bothnia more than the rest of the Baltic Sea, which will accelerate the eutrophication of the Gulf of Bothnia as nutrients enter the sea from the Gulf land area.
Agriculture is also one of the largest sources of nutrient leakage to the Gulf of Bothnia. This project intends to develop methods to remove nutrients from agricultural waters. Overall objective of this project is to develop combination methods for nutrient removal, which could in long-term help to reduce the nutrients loads of Baltic Sea. In the future, the removed nutrients could be further developed into sustainable, local recycled fertilizers, which would help the local farmers to reduce their dependency on mineral nutrients, the production of which causes huge CO2 emissions. The overall objective of the project is to develop combination methods for nutrient removal (N, P, K) from agricultural waters, which could in long-term help to reduce the nutrients loads of Baltic Sea.