The estate of Rämningstorp in the region of Västergötland in southern Sweden is administered by the holding trust company Skogssällskapet i Skövde. In 1999 measures were taken by Skogssällskapet to drain the stream Fredstorpsbäcken as a means to increase the forest productivity of the surrounding lands, which are situated on the estate of Rämningstorp. Almost immediately after the drainage, the streamwater turned turbid and a landowner downstream reported the issue to the county administrative board of the region. The aim of this thesis was firstly to analyse the suspended matter that appeared during summer/autumn and secondly to explain why it came to be. Initial hypotheses for the explanation to the greyish turbid water were that it was either 1) a chemical/biochemical precipitate, or 2) an bacterial/algal blooming.

On ocean beds around the world sinking particles of residual biomass from animals and vegetation have, over time, accumulated into thick layers of sediment. For researchers these layers of sediment contain valuable information about the earth?s past climate, information that can be used to predict future climate change and to estimate natural vs. human causes of today?s global warming.The Institute of Geosciences at Stockholm University studies sediment cores that have been acquired with an apparatus called piston corer.

Headwater streams are affected by anthropogenic impacts at multiple scales. One aspect of human impact is sediment transport associated to the abundance of stream structures as large woody debris and the composition of the riparian zone from forest to agricultural landscapes. Riparian buffer zones and stream structures like dead wood are considered as generally important structures for protection against an increasing amount of sediment particles in the water. Hence, in this study these structures were quantified in thirty different stream segments on land and in the water. To measure the transport of sediment Whitlock-Vibert boxes were used in three different types of landscapes; forest, transition and fields. The boxes were left in the stream segments for three months, the taken up and dried and weighed. The results showed that the transition-land in Frösvidalsån had the highest sediment transport. The second highest transport of sediment was in Blackstaån at the fields.

Many people choose to live in urban environments. Since everyday life in many cities is characterized by a high pace it is important that good recreational areas, with the possibility of recovery, are available to the population.This paper is based on a case study of Växjö city park, which is the area surrounding the lake Växjösjön. The park and the lake are of great importance to the citizens. The lake Växjösjön has for a long time been affected by eutrophication, which has caused major problems as algal blooms and fish mortality. An extensive lake restoration was carried out in the 1990s in order to save the lake.

The metal mining history goes thousands of years back. The downside of the mining industry is the large amount of tailings created during the mining operations. Drainage and leaching of heavy metals from these tailings may cause major environmental problems including acid mine drainage and leaching of heavy metals. This study examines a pond located near an old mining site, where part of the old mining facility has been recently (1990) restored. The objective was to assess eventual metal contamination from historical mining and the recently performed restoration using a sediment core as a natural archive of historical metal inputs to the pond.

Stormwater run-off from surfaces such as roads or rooftops is often polluted with heavy metals and nutrients. Many of these substances can cause great damage in biota if they end up in the recipient. In Sweden constructed wetlands and ponds for treatment of stormwater are frequently used, since research has shown that these treatment ponds are reducing stormwater pollution considerably to a low cost. The knowledge of these pollutant removal mechanisms and how follow-up and assessment of the ponds should be performed is still limited.To determine the pollutant removal efficiency of the stormwater ponds it is recommended that flow-weighted water samples are collected from both the inflow and the outflow of the pond. This method demands considerable resources of time and money for installations and analysis.

The purpose of ?The Lake? was to create an experience with music and visuals working with no budget.A personal purpose was that I wanted to explore new areas in design, like scenography, and combine them with my previous knowledge and skills. My method was to keep my hands busy at all times and use new materials. I also wanted to work with other creators and learn from their methods. Together with a musician I created the music and the concept for the project.

To investigate effects of nitrogen on in-lake CO2 and CH4 production during winter, three pair of lakes was subject for a fertilizing experiment in which one lake in each pair was fertilized with nitric acid (HNO3) directly into the water column in the summer of 2012. The lakes in each pair are assumed to be morphologically, hydrologically and biologically similar, that is, the non-fertilized lakes are considered references. The pairs do differ in one major way by being progressively less humic, going from around 25 mg/l to 10 mg/l DOC. Sampling and analysis was carried out at the end of the frozen period in 2013. Results show a significantly higher concentration of both CO2 (p<0,001) and CH4 (?=0,1, p=0,053) between impact and reference sites in the two less humic pairs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how elevated levels of heavy metals affect the faunal species composition, abundance and species-diversity. The bentic macroinvertebrate fauna in the highly polluted lake Tisken was compared with the bentic macroinvertebrate fauna in the unpolluted lake Varpan. Mine wastes account for most of the metal that is discharged into Tisken. The hypotheses was that the heavy metal pollutions in lake Tisken influenced the species composition, abundance and diversity of the macroinvertebrates. Twenty samples were taken in both sites.

The lake Spexhultasjön is a moderate humic mesotrophic lake that is not acidified. The fish fauna was investigated by using a standard method for sampling freshwater fish with multi mesh gill nets. The fish fauna was diverse with perch, pike, tench, common whitefish, and roach. Perch and roach dominated. There were few pikes.

The purpose of this thesis has been to assess whether leaching from one particular Swedishlandfill site, Skörbytippen, is contributing to elevated levels of heavy metals in a ditch runningfrom the landfill site to the lake Mälaren in the communal region of Håbo kommun. Since theditch is stretching approximately five km downstream from the landfill site, in situ observationsand maps with known points of inflow was utilized to determine appropriate test points for thecollection of samples.Soil, water and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for content of organic material, pHand conductivity. Data on plant-available elements and total amounts of heavy metals wasacquired through ICP-analysis.The results show that the Skörby landfill is currently in the methane-forming anaerobedevelopment phase, which indicates that the concentration of free and complex-bound metals inthe leachate water should be low due to chemical binding with other landfill compounds. The pHof the sediment samples was generally one unit higher than the soil samples and some of themeasured data, such as pH and conductivity, show that an environmentally disturbing dischargeof some kind of strongly alkaline chemical(s) has been made from Benders? takpanneindustri inclose proximity to the landfill.

The ancient site of Skårby, situated about twenty kilometres south of Stockholm, includes one very large cairn enclosured by a stone wall with a small cairn attached to it. Cairns are originally thought of as graves, but resent research shows that they are more likely to have been religious objects. The constructions are seated on a small hill with a view over the lake Bornsjön which used to be a bay of the lake Mälaren. This place has been the object of worship throughout the whole Bronze Age. Over the years the manifestation of the worship changed, but the place for it stayed the same..

In today?s World is climate change an important and hot topic. Climate scenarios for Sweden show a warmer climate, especially during the autumn, winter and spring. The same climate scenarios also show that the precipitation will increase during this part of the year, however, during the summer the opposite is expected to occur. The purpose of this essay is to examine how future climate change will affect Stockholm especially the expected increase in precipitation, which may lead to a rising level of the Lake Mälaren. During 2000/2001 was Stockholm hit by a flood. This flood nearly resulted in major consequences and showed that there were significant risks for the city of Stockholm and increasing precipitation will result in even more water in the drainage systems of Lake Mälaren. The results presented here show that it is important to increase the drainage capacity of Lake Mälaren in order to reduce the risks of flooding in the central parts of Stockholm.

A number of chemical agents, and their degradation products, have been recognized as having estrogenic activity on animals. On fish they interfere with endogenous estrogen and in many cases mimic its activity, thus increase estrogenic reponse, with elevated levels of vitellogenin. Hence they are called Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals, EDCs. Vitellogenin levels is often used as a biomarker of exposure to estrogenic pollutants. Wastewater from sewage treatment works contains chemicals known as EDCs, and there are evidence of roach (Rutilus rutilus) living in recipients of such wastewater having traits of both gender, i.e. oocytes in male gonads (intersex) on histological examination. This study was done on roach living in Lake Funbosjön Uppland, Sweden.

Agricultural drainage ditches are links between fields, lakes and oceans, having the potential to transport e.g. sediment and nutrients. When in a good condition, drainage ditches can act as sinks for e.g. phosphorus and sediments and prevent eutrophication downstream. The aim of this study was to determine the condition of one agricultural drainage ditch and to come up with suggestions for appropriate measures. The aim was also to determine which of the ditch?s properties that were possible to evaluate visually, which processes they represented as well as which properties required complementary physical analysis. This in order to contribute to the work of developing a method for determining the status/condition of agricultural drainage ditches.