Nordic water bodies face multiple stressors due to human activities, generating diffuse loading and climate change. The ‘green shift’ towards a bio-based economy poses new demands and increased pressure on the environment. Bioeconomy-related pressures consist primarily of more intensive land management to maximise production of biomass. These activities can add considerable nutrient and sediment loads to receiving waters, posing a threat to ecosystem services and good ecological status of surface waters. The potential threats of climate change and the ‘green shift’ highlight the need for improved understanding of catchment-scale water and element fluxes. Here, we assess possible bioeconomy-induced pressures on Nordic catchments and associated impacts on water quality. We suggest measures to protect water quality under the ‘green shift’ and propose ‘road maps’ towards sustainable catchment management. We also identify knowledge gaps and highlight the importance of long-term monitoring data and good models to evaluate changes in water quality, improve understanding of bioeconomy-related impacts, support mitigation measures and maintain ecosystem services.

北欧水域由于人类活动而面临多重压力，产生分散负荷和气候变化。向生物经济的“绿色转变”提出了新的要求，并给环境带来了越来越大的压力。与生物经济有关的压力主要包括更密集的土地管理，以最大程度地生产生物量。这些活动会给接收水增加大量的营养和沉积物负荷，对生态系统服务和地表水的良好生态状况构成威胁。气候变化和“绿色转变”的潜在威胁突出表明，需要更好地了解流域规模的水和元素通量。在这里，我们评估了可能由生物经济引发的北欧流域压力以及对水质的影响。我们建议采取措施在“绿色转变”下保护水质，并为可持续流域管理提出“路线图”。我们还将找出知识差距，并强调长期监测数据和良好模型对评估水质变化，增进对生物经济相关影响的理解，支持缓解措施并维持生态系统服务的重要性。