168
1. Wallentinus
6.2 The Swedish West Coast
The Swedish west coast (including the shores of the Kattegat and the
Skagerrak; cf. Fig. 6.1) represents a transitional area between the fully
marine Atlantic Ocean and the brackish Baltic Sea. The influences of
tides are moderate. The tidal variations of water level are a maximum of
ca 0.3 m on the northern Swedish west coast, while the water levels may
change about 1 m or more during the year (cf. Johanneson 1989). Much
of the northern part of the Swedish west coast is characterized by archipelago areas, while the Swedish Kattegat coast is mainly open, to a large
extent consisting of sandy beaches which harbour communities of seaTonnes P yr- 1
30
•
0
100
_
0
300
-
D 1000
Tonnes N yr- 1
300
•
0
1000
_
0
3000
-
D 10000
Fig.6.1. Annual discharges of total phosphorus and nitrogen, respectively, from rivers
and fjords (arrows), and industrial and/or urban discharges (open squares) along the
Norwegian and Danish coasts, and the Swedish west coast. Sk and S denote the Skagerrak; Kt and K the Kattegat. (After Bernes 1993)