Research interests

My present research is largely focused on the SLU special task on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (FoMa).

My work is mainly focused on:

• Evaluation of long-term trends in water chemistry and biological composition, and food web interactions (including fatty acids as tracer substances) in lakes and watercourses.
• Nutrient cycling and source apportionment in aquatic systems and watersheds.
• Load of nutrients and hazardous substances to the Sea.
• Risk assessment of heavy metals and organic environmental pollutants in freshwaters, biota, and sediments.

Ongoing projects

• Long-term evaluation of Lake Mälaren
• Estimates of the annual Swedish emissions of nutrients and other substances to the Baltic Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean.
• Assessments of the methodology for estimating the riverine and diffuse nutrient load on the Sea.
• Evaluation of water chemistry and biological composition in regional monitoring programs.
• Assessment of the Swedish monitoring of lakes on national and regional scale, and its representativeness regarding the commitments to the Water Framework Directive.
• Revision of the OSPAR RID reporting guidelines and other reporting routines.
• The HELCOM PLC 5.5 reporting (Pollution Load Compilation no 5.5 [i.e. update of PLC 5]).
• The HELCOM PLC 6 reporting (Pollution Load Compilation no 6) including revision of reporting routines.

Appointments

• Deputy Head of the Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment
• Editorial Board Member of Environmental Pollution
• SLU representative in the Steering Committee of the Swedish Environmental Emissions Data (SMED; Information may be found at: http://www.smed.se/)
• Board Member for the Lake Vänern LTER site
• HELCOM LOAD, the HELCOM Expert Group on follow-up of national progress towards reaching BSAP nutrient reduction targets
• OSPAR RID Principles Review Group, revision and harmonisation of the guidlines for national reporting of the loads to the North Atlantic ocean
• OSPAR INPUT, the OSPAR expert group on waterbourne and atmospheric inputs to the North Atlantic ocean
• The Uppland Foundation (Upplandsstiftelsen) Water Management Board 

Teaching

Course director for a 10-week undergraduate course in Ecotoxicology
Participating in a 3-week graduate course in Multivariate methods for ecologists (will not be given in 2013).

Student supervision (active students)

• Steffi Gottschalk, PhD student (Assisting supervisor)
• Ida Jansson, Undergraduate student, "Eco-labelled fish; does it matter?" (Miljömärkning av fisk; gör det någon skillnad?).

Selected publications

(complete list is found here)

EKLÖF K., FÖLSTER J., SONESTEN L. and BISHOP K. 2012. Spatial and temporal variation of THg concentrations in run-off water from 19 boreal catchments, 2000–2010. Env. Poll. 164:102-109. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2012.01.024

BRINGMARK E., BRINGMARK L., SONESTEN L., MJÖFORS K. and JOHANSSON M-L. 2011. Long-Term Monitoring of Scots Pine Litter Decomposition Rates Throughout Sweden Indicates Formation of a More Recalcitrant Litter in the South. Ambio 40:878-890. DOI: 10.1007/s13280-011-0202-0

SONESTEN L. 2010. Belastning - brunifiering av våra vatten. I Havet 2010 (Nutrient loadings - Brownification, In: The Sea 2010 - Yearbook of the Swedish marine monitoring and research. In Swedish). For more information see Havet.nu. Download the article (pdf in Swedish).

SONESTEN L., WALLIN M. OCH KVARNÄS H. 2004. Kväve och fosfor till Vänern och Västerhavet – Transporter, retention och åtgärdsscenarier inom Göta älvs avrinningsområde. Länsstyrelsen i Västra Götaland, Rapport 2004:33, Länsstyrelsen i Värmlands län, Rapport 2004:17, Vänerns vattenvårdsförbund, Rapport 29.

SONESTEN, L. 2003. Fish mercury levels in lakes – adjusting for Hg and fish-size covariation. Environmental Pollution 125:255-265. DOI: 10.1016/S0269-7491(03)00051-4

FONTICIELLA, D.W. AND SONESTEN, L. 2000. Tilapia aquaculture in Cuba. Pages 184–203 In: Costa-Pierce, B.A. and Rakocy, J.E. (Eds.) Tilapia Aquaculture in the Americas, Volume Two. The World Aquaculture Society, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

AHLGREN G., SONESTEN L., BOBERG M. & GUSTAFSSON I-B. 1996. Fatty acid content of some freshwater fish in lakes of different trophic levels – A bottom-up effect? Ecology of Freshwater Fish 5, s 15-27.