Given the heterogenous structure of the Baltic Sea - existence of several subsystems - and presence of organisms of different origin (and different abiotic preferences) - marine boreal, freshwater and glacial relicts - the transect method, carried out in each sub-system (or sub-basin) should be applied in the future biodiversity research. The transect should start from the shallow coastal zone in order to cover the coastal communities, often dominated by freshwater species, and extend to deep water - in order to assess the status of marine species and glacial relicts. This will give us uncomparably more comprehensive picture on the spatio-temporal dynamics of the biota (by sub-systems as extrapolation of results from one sub-basin to another may lead to miselading results) compared to surveys on the set of selected single stations, the strategy which is generally currently in use.
Regards,
Henn Ojaveer |
