SOFTDRINK

Dredging disturbs the seafloor and can release carbon stored in soft sediments, potentially back to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. Due to increasing use of the marine environment, dredging is expected to occur more frequently during the coming decades. The SOFTDRINK project will determine the effects of dredging on sediment carbon release in Finnish sea areas, studying harbours, offshore wind farms and recreational land use such as shoreline management for summer houses. In each case, the project will calculate the amount of carbon lost from sediments when dredging occurs, and use machine learning methods to map the overall change in sediment carbon throughout Finnish sea areas. Finally, the project will assess the combined effects of climate change and future marine development using environmental risk analysis.

2025

2029