Expedition in the Baltic Sea is currently studying methane emissions from the seabed
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and responsible for one third of the contemporary climate change. The results so far confirm that active methane emissions in the deep Baltic Sea are linked to the accumulation of organic matter in sediments below the seafloor by bottom currents. This suggests that there are other processes involved in the methane emissions in the deep Baltic Sea that need further investigation.
Linnaeus University is participating of an expedition in the Baltic Sea to study methane emissions from the seafloor to the water and atmosphere. The expedition is taking place in Southern Quark (Åland Sea) and in Landsort Deep (central Baltic Sea) onboard the research vessel Electra.
Marcelo Ketzer is the leader of the expedition and is accompanied by two other researchers from the department of Biology and Environmental Science, Changxun Yu and Melissa Sundberg. They are collecting water and sediment samples to be analyzed in Kalmar. The objective is to understand the how much methane exists and how much is being emitted.
Preliminary results of the expedition confirmed that active methane emissions in the deep Baltic Sea are linked to the accumulation of organic matter in sediments below the seafloor by bottom currents. New results indicate that there are other processes involved in the methane emissions in the deep Baltic Sea that need further investigation. There is another expedition occurring in the summer of 2026.
The team is also composed by researchers from Stockholm University (Cristian Stranne, co-lead of the expedition, Camile Akhoudas, Yu Yan Yau, Christoph Böttner, and Elias Erstorp,) Triniti College in Ireland (Jerry Dickens), Unisinos in Brazil (Frederico Rodrigues) and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in Japan (Satoko Owari).
Funders: The Swedish Research Council and SWERVE - Swedish Research Vessel Infrastructure for Marine Research.