Introduction
Climate change may affect seashores in several more ways than inland habitats, including effects of rising sea levels, changed wind patterns, and reduced ice cover. Sea level rise has, since the 1960s, been caused by a combination of thermal expansion of the sea and melting ice packs, each accounting for about half of the increase (Church and White 2011). Sea levels are expected to increase at an even higher rate in the future (Church et al. 2013). Projected changes in wind patterns will alter conditions for seashore organisms, and a reduced ice cover in northern areas will influence the occurrence, timing, and intensity of ice scouring. Ice scouring is an important process shaping many coastal habitats in the northern and central Baltic Sea.