The Baltic is a young postglacial enclosed sea located in the Northern Europe. The lack of tides and water salinity - on average five times lower than in fully marine environments - give this sea an unique character. Its poor fauna and flora consist of a mixture of marine, brackish and freshwater species. Large parts of the Baltic bottom are biological deserts. Read more
The Baltic Sea is known of its harsh climatic conditions which change from sub-arctic in the north to temperate in the south. During winters the northern part of the sea is usually ice covered and on rare occasions the whole sea was frozen (last time in 1966; in 1986 96% of the sea was covered by ice).
The name ‘Baltic’ might be connected to the word ‘belt’ used to name Danish straites or was derived from Latin word ‘balteus’ which means ‘belt’ (indeed, the sea stretches through the land as a belt). For ancient
Greece and later for the
Roman Empire the Baltic was a well-known source of
amber.
Nowadays, the Baltic Sea borders nine countries – nine different histories, traditions and cultures.
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The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community´s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant agreement n. 217766 