Umeå Marine Sciences Centre produces long term marine time series in the coastal and off-shore environments of the Gulf of Bothnia. The Ore estuary is proposed as the primary study area for the LTER initiative. This is a particularly intensively studied brackish water body with records back to the 1980´s. The estuary is 71.2 km^2 with an average depth of 10 m and maximum depth of 32 m. Salinity is between 1-3 g/kg. The Ore river discharge into the estuary and long term ecological time series i available also from the river. The watershed is dominated by boreal forest and mires.