Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences in 2017

The IO PAN conducted research within a range of national and international interdisciplinary projects, which resulted in authorship or co-authorship of 110 peer-reviewed research papers. Among a number of valuable results, which have been obtained from our activities in the Baltic and the Arctic, the three following ones are worth presenting:

1.         Recognition of the impact of global and local environmental conditions on the distribution of inorganic pollution in benthic sediments. The results obtained may facilitate the assessment of the impact of human activities (e.g. nuclear power plants, wind farms) on fate of pollution, which is currently not in the system.

2.         Results of analyses of selected compounds, potential markers of plastics in sediments of the southern Baltic (e.g. PCV) show that EU recommended values for benthic sediments of freshwater basins are not exceeded. Therefore, it has been recognized that sediments of the Gulf of Gdansk and the Szczecin lagoon are not contaminated by these compounds.

3.         Fields of sea grass in the Gulf of Gdansk, despite relatively poorly developed flora, have significant impact on the functioning of benthic systems.

Photo:  Piotr Bałazy (Diver),  Kajetan Deja (Oceania)