Marine environment quality assessment of the Skagerrak - Kattegat

This quality assessment of the Skagerrak-Kattegat is mainly based on recent results obtained within the framework of the Swedish multidisciplinary research projekt ‘Large-scale environmental effects and ecological processes in the Skagerrak-Kattegat’ completed with relevant data from other research publications. The results show that the North Sea has a significant impact on the marine ecosystem in the Skagerrak and the northern Kattegat. Among environmental changes recently documented for some of these areas are: increased nutrient concentrations, increased occurrence of fast-growing filamentous algae in coastal areas affecting nursery and feeding conditions for fish, declining bottom water oxygen concentrations with negative effects on benthic fauna, and sediment toxicity to invertebrates also causing physiological responses in fish. It is concluded that, due to eutrophication and toxic substances, large-scale environmental changes and effects occur in the Skagerrak-Kattegat area