In situ incubations of sediment with overlying water provide valuable and consistent information about benthic fluxes and processes at the sediment-water interface. In this paper, we describe our experiences and a variety of applications from the last 14 years and 308 deployments with the Gothenburg benthic chamber lander systems. We give examples of how we use sensor measurements for chamber leakage control, in situ chamber volume determination, control of syringe sampling times, sediment resuspension and stirring quality. We present examples of incubation data for in situ measurements of benthic fluxes of oxygen, dissolved inorganic carbon, nutrients, metals and gases made with our chamber landers, as well as manipulative injection experiments to study nitrogen cycling (injections of N-15 nitrate), phosphate retention (injections of marl suspension) and targeted sediment resuspension. Our main goal is to demonstrate the possibilities that benthic chamber lander systems offer to measure solute fluxes and study processes at the sediment-water interface. Based on our experience, we recommend procedures to be used in order to obtain high quality data with benthic chamber landers.

Globally, ecosystem-based marine spatial planning has become a useful instrument to coordinate the planning of different authorities. This, for balancing different requirements when managing marine areas and space. In the planning process, ecology is setting limits to which human activities are acceptable to the society. The use of the marine environment can be planned similarly as the land environment. We argue that there are several aspects which must be taken into consideration. Marine activities have traditionally been planned and managed in a sectoral way. Today, it has become obvious that a more holistic, multi-sectoral and coordinated approach is needed in future successful marine planning and management. The increased awareness of the importance of the oceans and seas challenges the traditional sector division and geographical limits in marine policy and calls for better coordinated and coherent marine policies.

Globally, conflicts between marine nature conservation and fishery interests are common and increasing, and there is often a glaring lack of dialogue between stakeholders representing these two interests. There is a need for a stronger and enforced coordination between fishing and conservation authorities when establishing marine protected areas for conservation purposes. We propose that an appropriate instrument for such coordination is a broad ecosystem-based marine spatial planning procedure, representing neither nature conservation nor fishery. Strategic environmental assessment for plans and programmes and environmental impact assessment for projects are commonly used tools for assessing the environmental impacts of different human activities, but are seldom used for evaluating the environmental effects of capture fisheries. The diversity of fisheries and the drastic effects of some fisheries on the environment are strong arguments for introducing these procedures as valuable supplements to existing fisheries assessment and management tools and able to provide relevant environmental information for an overall marine spatial planning process. Marine protected areas for nature conservation and for protection of fisheries have different objectives. Therefore, the legal procedure when establishing marine protected areas should depend on whether they are established for nature conservation purposes or as a fisheries resource management tool. Fishing in a marine protected area for conservation purpose should be regulated according to conservation law. Also, we argue that marine protected areas for conservation purposes, in the highest protection category, should primarily be established as fully protected marine national parks and marine reserves.

Coastal and shelf sediments affected by transient or long-term bottom water anoxia and sulfidic conditions undergo drastic changes in macrofauna communities and abundances. This study investigates how early colonization by two macrofaunal functional traits (epifauna vs. infauna) affects oxygen, sulfide, and pH dynamics in anoxic sediment upon recent bottom water oxygenation. Large mesocosms (area 900 cm(2)) with 150-m-deep Baltic Sea soft sediments were exposed to three treatments: (1) no animals; (2) addition of 170 polychaetes (Marenzelleria arctia); (3) addition of 181 amphipods (Monoporeia affinis). Porewater chemistry was investigated repeatedly by microsensor profiling over a period of 65 days. Colonization by macrofauna did not significantly deepen penetration of oxygen compared to the animal-free sediment. Bioturbation by M. affinis increased the volume of the oxidized, sulfide-free sediment by 66% compared to the animal-free control already after 13 days of incubation. By the end of the experiment M. affinis and M. arctia increased the oxidized sediment volume by 87 and 35%, respectively. Higher efficiency of epifaunal amphipods in removing hydrogen sulfide than deep-burrowing polychaetes is likely due to more substantial re-oxidation of manganese and/or nitrogen compounds associated with amphipod mixing activity. Our results thus indicate that early colonization of different functional groups might have important implications for the later colonization by benthic macrofauna, meiofauna and microbial communities that benefit from oxidized and sulfide-free sediments.

In the past decade, marine protected areas (MPAs) have become an increasingly used tool for science-based conservation and adaptive management of marine biodiversity and related natural resources. In this review paper, we report on rather complete time-course series (55 years uninterrupted) focusing on comparison of the strong difference, in number and area, in establishing marine (56 MNRs) and terrestrial (4284 TNRs) nature reserves in Sweden versus marine (7001 MPAs) and terrestrial (132742 TPAs) protected areas globally. Sweden appears to follow the overall global time trends. The large backlog of MPAs in relation to TPAs is due to several possible reasons, such as (i) unclear marine jurisdiction, (ii) marine conservation policies and programs developed later than terrestrial, (iii) higher costs for marine conservation management, (iv) conflicts in marine conservation, especially the fishery, and (v) the general public's historically weak awareness of the status of the marine environment.

In natural waters, dissolved oxyanions often dominate over the particle-bound element fraction. Still, the scavenging of oxyanions by suspended particles might contribute significantly to their dynamic cycling and distribution. To investigate how oxyanions are affected by manganese (Mn) redox cycling, detailed depth profiles across the pelagic redox zone at the Landsort Deep, Baltic Sea, were collected for molybdenum (Mo), vanadium (V), and tungsten (W), for both dissolved (< 0.22 mu m) and suspended particulate (> 0.22 mu m) fractions. All three oxyanions show a non-conservative behavior in the stratified Landsort Deep. Strong linear correlations with Mn in the particulate fraction in the redox zone of the Landsort Deep suggest that Mn redox cycling influences their distribution. In the dissolved fraction, Mo, V, and W exhibited rather different behavior. Molybdenum was depleted below the redox zone, while V was depleted only within the redox zone. Tungsten concentrations increased within the redox zone, being three times higher in the sulfidic zone than in the surface water. Unlike Mo, W shows no tendency for adsorption or co-precipitation under the prevailing weak sulfidic conditions in the deep water of the Landsort Deep and is, therefore, not exported to the underlying sediment. The Landsort Deep data were compared with data from the northern Baltic Sea (Bothnian Bay, Kalix River and Rane River estuaries), where particulate iron (Fe) occurs in high abundance. The particulate fractions of Mo, V, and W decreased during mixing in these estuaries. Vanadium showed the most drastic reduction, with a decrease in dissolved and particulate fractions, indicating that different processes influence the distribution of these oxyanions.

Benthic nutrient dynamics in the coastal basin Kanholmsfjarden, NW Baltic proper, were studied by in situ flux measurements and sediment samplings in 2010-2013. The benthic release of NH4 and DIP from anoxic sediments in Kanholmsfjarden were calculated to renew the standing stock inventories of DIN and DIP in the overlying water in roughly 1 year. Starting in summer 2012, mixing of oxygen-rich water into the deep part of the basin temporarily improved the oxygen conditions in the deep water. During the 1 year oxygenated period, the total phosphorus inventory in the surficial sediment increased by 0.4 g P m(-2) or 65%. This was most likely due to stimulated bacterial P assimilation under oxygenated conditions. By July 2013, the bottom water had again turned anoxic, and DIP and DSi fluxes were even higher than earlier in the study period. These high fluxes are attributed to degradation of sedimentary pools of P and Si that had accumulated during the bottom water oxygenation in 2012. The strong correlation between DIP and DSi fluxes and the similar dynamics of DIP and DSi in the sediment pore water and near bottom water, suggest a similar redox dependency of benthic-pelagic exchange for these nutrients.

Effects of bottom water oxygenation and macrofaunal colonisation on benthic fluxes of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and silicon (Si) from long-term anoxic Baltic Sea bottom sediment were investigated. Sediment boxcosms from an anoxic site at 150 m depth in the open Baltic proper were incubated in the laboratory to follow the development of benthic nutrient fluxes during 74 d exposure to flow-through of oxygen-rich water. In contrast to traditional end-point experimental designs, our repeated measurement approach allowed for separation of transient and long-term effects of oxygenation and bioturbation on benthic nutrient recycling. The composition, but not the rate, of the benthic total dissolved N efflux changed by oxygenation from being dominated by NH4 in situ to being mostly composed of NO2 + NO3 and dissolved organic N (DON) under oxic conditions. Oxygenation in the boxcosms decreased the benthic efflux of dissolved silicate (DSi) and essentially shut off the in situ flux of dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP). After 20 d of oxygenation, 2 bottom macrofauna taxa, the polychaete Marenzelleria spp. and the amphipod Monoporiea affinis, were introduced to a subset of the boxcosms. Bioturbation by either taxa increased the efflux of dissolved inorganic N (DIN), DON and DSi to the overlying water. The P-rich benthic flux under in situ anoxic conditions roughly approached Redfield N: P stoichiometry after oxygenation in the sediment boxcosms. Upon addition of macrofauna, bioturbation gene rated even higher N:P flux ratios.

An improved, large double-jawed box corer, intended primarily for sampling of soft sediments on continental margins and in large lakes, is described. The device performs reliably when entering the sediment and enclosing the sample, during withdrawal and hoisting on board the ship and also when detaching the collected sediment sample. It offers the following advantages: (1) robust design, (2) minimally impeded flow of water through the box chamber during lowering and (3) an efficient closure mechanism. It is furnished with a supporting stand, a transparent liner and an accessory anti-slosh baffle for insertion in the liner as the corer is set down on the ship's deck. In situ video records and turbidity measurements from field trials, as well as visual inspection of the core and supernatant water after retrieval, show that the device collects minimally disturbed sediment when properly and carefully operated. This contrasts with the bulky United States Naval Electronics Laboratory (USNEL) Spade Corer in which water flow through the box chamber during lowering is impeded, causing a bow-wave ahead of the corer that displaces surficial sediment. In addition, the USNEL's single-spade closing mechanism deforms the sediment sample severely and can even cause loss of sediment. Our new box corer performs much better, making it suitable for quantitative benthic sampling.

In recent decades, eutrophication has increased the extent of hypoxic and anoxic conditions in many coastal marine environments. In such conditions, the nutrient flux across the sediment–water interface is a key process controlling the biogeochemical dynamics, and thereby the level and character of biological production. In some areas, management attempts to drive the ecosystem towards phosphorus (P) limitation, which calls for reliable knowledge on the mechanisms controlling P-cycling. We report a well-controlled laboratory experiment on benthic fluxes of P, when shifting from a state of hypoxic and azoic sediments to oxic and zoic bottom conditions. Adding any of three types of macrobenthic fauna (mysid shrimp, pontoporeid amphipod and tellinid clam) to oxygenated aquarium sections resulted in benthic P fluxes that differed consistently from the azoic control sections. All species caused liberation of dissolved organically bound P (DOP) from the sediment, in contrast to the azoic systems. The shrimp and the amphipod also resuspended the sediment, which resulted in a release of P bound to particles (>0.45 μm). Dissolved inorganic phosphate (DIP) was released during hypoxic conditions, but was taken up after oxygenation, irrespective of the presence or absence of bottom fauna. In the presence of fauna, the uptake of DIP roughly equalled the release of DOP, suggesting that the benthic efflux of DOP following oxygenation and bottom fauna (re)colonisation might be considerable. This is an hitherto overlooked animal-controlled nutrient flux, which is missing from coastal marine P budgets.