Eastern Baltic Proper Coast and Gulf of Riga

2 Eastern Baltic Proper Coast and Gulf of Riga 

The eastern Baltic Proper coast consists mainly of highly mobile sandy substrates. Hard bottom, suitable for macroalgae colonization, is very rare in its southern parts. Further north, off the coast of Latvia and Estonia, hard bottom becomes available again and macrophytes thrive there. 

With respect to long-term changes, Martin (2000) reviewed the literature about macrophyte occurrence, dating back in this region for more than a century, and compares 

3 Western Baltic Proper Coast and Archipelago/Aland Sea 

Below the region of regular ice impact, belt-forming Fucus vesiculosus dominates, representing 30 5% of the plant biomass in the basin (Kautsky et al., 1992). However, as shown and discussed by Waern (1952) and confirmed by Kiirikki (1996), even Fucus, being well adapted to heavy mechanical stress, might be absent at locations of extreme wave exposition. Fucus serratus is co-occurring with Fucus vesiculosus in the southern parts of the Swedish coast (Malm, 1999 Malm et al., 2001). 

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