Press releases

Due to warm weather the occurrence of cyanobacteria has increased in lakes, but the algal situation is still rather typical for the period. Both in the coastal and open sea areas of the Baltic Sea only single surface blooms of cyanobacteria have been observed. Pollen of pine can still form surface water accumulations in the central and northern Finland that may resemble cyanobacteria.

Cyanophyte blooms have increased since last week in lakes in Southern Finland. In the Finnish open sea areas no blooms have been observed, but a few occurrences of blue-green algae have been observed on the coast

The Finnish Environment Institute SYKE has started this week its cyanobacterial bloom reporting for the summer 2019. Cyanobacterial blooms have not been observed in the Finnish sea areas this week. In lakes, observations of scarce amounts of cyanobacteria have been made only at few locations.

The risk of significant and widespread blue-green algae blooms in Finnish sea areas matches that of previous years, since the nutrient situation has remained largely the same. This summer brings with it a substantial risk of blue-green algae formations in the Gulf of Finland, the northern part of the Baltic Proper and most of the Finnish Archipelago Sea. The weather conditions will determine whether or not the risk is realised.

Powerful novel DNA-based methods are being developed to assess biodiversity and the ecological status of water bodies, yet little consensus about method standardisation exists. In order to tackle this issue the European Standardisation Committee (CEN) has set up a new working group. Its duty is to advance the standardization of molecular methods for routine use in water analysis.