Wissenschaftliche Monitoringkonzepte für die Deutsche Bucht (WIMO) - Abschlussbericht

The state and development of coastal marine systems and an understanding of the interaction of organisms, sea floor, water column, and biochemical and physical processes can only be obtained by a combination of long-term monitoring and modelling approaches of different complexity. A need for the development and evaluation of monitoring strategies is driven by a framework of different European and German regulations. The research project WIMO (Scientific Monitoring Concepts for the German Bight) has developed concepts and methods that aim at a fundamental scientific understanding of marine systems and also meet monitoring requirements of European legislation and regulations like the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. In this final report examples of common descriptors of ecosystem state like seabed integrity, eutrophication, and biodiversity are discussed. It has been assessed to what extent established measuring procedures used to survey the characteristics of the sea floor, and newly developed technologies are eligible for governmental monitoring. The significance of integrative modelling for linking and visualising results of measurements and models is illustrated. It is shown how new concepts have been implemented into governmental monitoring in the form of web based data sheets. These insights enable continuous analyses and developments in the future

Tune in on 11.57 µHz and listen to primary production

In this paper we present an elegant approach to reconstruct slowly varying gross primary production (GPP) as a function of time, based on O2 time series. The approach, called complex demodulation, is based on a direct analogy with amplitude-modulated (AM) radio signals. The O2 concentrations oscillating at the diel frequency (or 11.57 µHz) can be seen as a carrier wave, while the time variation in the amplitude of this carrier wave is related to the time-varying GPP. The relation follows from an analysis in the frequency domain of the governing equations of O2 dynamics. After the theoretical derivation, we assess the performance of the approach by applying it to three artificial O2 time series, generated with models representative of a well-mixed vertical water column, a river and an estuary. These models are forced with hourly observed incident irradiance, resulting in a variability of GPP on scales from hours to months. The dynamic build-up of algal biomass further increases the seasonality. Complex demodulation allows for reconstruction, with great precision, of time-varying GPP of the vertical water column and the river model. Surprisingly, it is possible to derive daily averaged GPP – complex demodulation thus reconstructs the amplitude of every single diel cycle. Also, in estuaries time-varying GPP can be reconstructed to a great extent. But there, the influence of the tides prevent achieving the same temporal resolution. In particular, the combination of horizontal O2 gradients with quasi-diurnal harmonics in the tides interferes with the complex demodulation procedure and introduces spurious amplitude variation that can not be attributed to GPP. We demonstrate that these spurious effects also occur in real-world time series (Hörnum Tief, Germany). The spurious effects due to K1 and P1 quasi-diurnals can not be distinguished from GPP. However, the spurious fluctuations introduced by O1 and Q1 can be removed to a large extent by increasing the averaging time to 15 days. As such, we demonstrate that a good estimate of the running 15-day average of GPP can be obtained in tidal systems. Apart from the direct merits of estimating GPP from O2 time series, the analysis in the frequency domain enhances our insights into O2 dynamics in tidal systems in general, and into the performance of O2 methods to estimate GPP in particular

No microzooplankton grazing during a Mediopyxis helysia dominated diatom bloom.

The new diatom species Mediopyxis helysia was described to science from clones found in 2003 in the North Sea, northern Wadden Sea, and the Gulf of Maine. Seven years after its first occurrence, we observed Mediopyxis to contribute up to almost 50% of the biovolume of the diatoms during a diatom spring bloom in the western Wadden Sea. Grazing experiments based on the dilution technique could not detect any microzooplankton grazing impact on the bloom community. Mediopyxis is now also well established in the western Wadden Sea and does have the potential to become a dominant species. The reasons for its success remain largely unresolved but avoidance of being grazed might be one factor. Future research on this new species is needed to understand the success and forecast the ecological footprint of this large diatom species arriving in the western European Seas

The influence of channel deepening on estuarine turbidity levels and dynamics, as exemplified by the Ems estuary

Active deepening of tidal channels usually results in the alteration of the vertical and the horizontal tide. This may lead to concurrent significant increases in mean suspended matter concentrations (SPM) in coastal plain estuaries, the turbidity maximum (ETM) included. This is exemplified by an extensive analysis of the Ems estuary, a prototypical heavily stressed estuary in the Dutch-German border area. Measurements show that the SPM concentrations in the lower reaches of the estuary have increased an average of 2- to 3-fold between 1954 and 2005, with a 10-fold increase observed in the upper estuary (tidal river). Longitudinal profiles of surface SPM demonstrate that the ETM has moved upstream by up to 25 km and has broadened into a zone 30 km in length which extends into the freshwater tidal river. On an annual scale, variations in freshwater discharge significantly influence the formation and breakdown of the ETM: during low river discharge the ETM approaches equilibrium over 2e3 months, whilst elevated river discharges relocate the ETM downstream over several weeks. An exploratory, semi-analytical model is calibrated to simulate the equilibrium SPM distribution in the upper estuary during five time periods from 1965 to 2005, using archival bathymetric and tidal data. Results suggest that the deepening of tidal channels and a reduction in hydraulic drag have most likely resulted in a landward shift of the SPM trapping location. The measured increase in SPM concentrations and the development of fluid mud around the 1990s likely contributed to reduced mixing and bottom drag, creating a feedback loop that further altered tidal and SPM dynamics. It is argued that the removal of some non-erodible (consolidated) layers in the lower reaches of the estuary has created new internal sediment sources that may be responsible for feeding the observed high SPM concentrations, rather than increased sediment input from the boundaries. All findings are based on and supported by measured short-term seasonal fluctuations, as well as long-term developments of yearly averaged concentrations in the longitudinal SPM distribution

Consensus forecasting of intertidal seagrass habitat in the Wadden Sea

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