Nitrogen removal in coastal sediments of the German Wadden Sea

Although sediments of the German Wadden Sea are suspected to eliminate a considerable share of nitrate delivered to the SE North Sea, their denitrification rates have not been systematically assessed. We determined N2 production rates over seasonal cycles (February 2009-April 2010) at two locations with two sediments types each, the first site (Meldorf Bight) receiving nitrate during all seasons from the Elbe river plume, and a second site on the island of Sylt, where nitrate is depleted during summer months. In sediments from the Sylt site, N2 production ranged from 15 to 32μmol N2m−2h−1 in the fine sand station and from 7 to 13μmol N2m−2h−1 in the coarse sand station; N2 production was not detected when nitrate was depleted in May and July of 2009. N2 production in the Meldorf Bight sediments were consistently detected at higher rates (58-130μmolN2m−2h−1 in the very fine sand station and between 14 and 30μmol N2m−2h−1 in the medium sand station). Analysis of ancillary parameters suggests that major factors controlling N2 production in coastal sediments of the German Wadden Sea are the nitrate concentrations in the overlying water, the ambient temperature, and the organic matter content of the sediment. Extrapolating our spot measurements to the zone of nitrate availability and sediment types, we estimate an annual nitrogen removal rate around 16 kt Nyear−1 for the entire northern sector of the German Wadden Sea area. This corresponds to 14% of the annual Elbe river nitrogen loa

On the separation between inorganic and organic fractions of suspended matter in a marine coastal environment

A central aspect of coastal biogeochemistry is to determine how nutrients, lithogenic- and organic matter are distributed and transformed within coastal and estuarine environments. Analyses of the spatio-temporal changes of total suspended matter (TSM) concentration indicate strong and variable linkages between intertidal fringes and pelagic regions. In particular, knowledge about the organic fraction of TSM provides insight to how biogenic and lithogenic particulate matter are distributed in suspension. In our study we take advantage of a set of over 3000 in situ Loss on Ignition (LoI) data from the Southern North Sea that represent fractions of particulate organic matter (POM) relative to TSM (LoI $\equiv$ POM:TSM). We introduce a parameterization (POM-TSM model) that distinguishes between two POM fractions incorporated in TSM. One fraction is described in association with mineral particles. The other represents a seasonally varying fresh pool of POM. The performance of the POM-TSM model is tested against data derived from MERIS/ENVISAT-TSM products of the German Bight. Our analysis of remote sensing data exhibits specific qualitative features of TSM that can be attributed to distinct coastal zones. Most interestingly, a transition zone between the Wadden Sea and seasonally stratified regions of the Southern North Sea is identified where mineral associated POM appears in concentrations comparable to those of freshly produced POM. We will discuss how this transition is indicative for a zone of effective particle interaction and sedimentation.The dimension of this transition zone varies between seasons and with location. Our proposed POM-TSM model is generic and can be calibrated against in situ data of other coastal regions

A model-based projection of historical state of a coastal ecosystem : relevance of phytoplankton stoichiometry

We employed a coupled physical-biogeochemical modelling framework for the reconstruction of the historic (H), pre-industrial state of a coastal system, the German Bight (southeastern North Sea), and we investigated its differences with the recent, control (C) state of the system. According to our findings: i) average winter concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus (DIN and DIP) concentrations at the surface are ∼70–90% and ∼50–70% lower in the H state than in the C state within the nearshore waters, and differences gradually diminish towards off-shore waters; ii) differences in average growing season chlorophyll a (Chl) concentrations at the surface between the two states are mostly less than 50%; iii) in the off-shore areas, Chl concentrations in the deeper layers are affected less than in the surface layers; iv) reductions in phytoplankton carbon (C) biomass under the H state are weaker than those in Chl, due to the generally lower Chl:C ratios; v) in some areas the differences in growth rates between the two states are negligible, due to the compensation by lower light limitation under the H state, which in turn explains the lower Chl:C ratios; vi) zooplankton biomass, and hence the grazing pressure on phytoplankton is lower under the H state. This trophic decoupling is caused by the low nutritional quality (i.e., low N:C and P:C) of phytoplankton. These results call for increased attention to the relevance of the acclimation capacity and stoichiometric flexibility of phytoplankton for the prediction of their response to environmental change

Detecting critical choke points for achieving Good Environmental Status in European seas

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Abrupt emergence of a large pockmark field in the German Bight, southeastern North Sea

A series of multibeam bathymetry surveys revealed the emergence of a large pockmark field in the southeastern North Sea. Covering an area of around 915 km2, up to 1,200 pockmarks per square kilometer have been identified. The time of emergence can be confined to 3 months in autumn 2015, suggesting a very dynamic genesis. The gas source and the trigger for the simultaneous outbreak remain speculative. Subseafloor structures and high methane concentrations of up to 30 mmol/l in sediment pore water samples suggest a source of shallow biogenic methane from the decomposition of post-glacial deposits in a paleo river valley. Storm waves are suggested as the final trigger for the eruption of the gas. Due to the shallow water depths and energetic conditions at the presumed time of eruption, a large fraction of the released gas must have been emitted to the atmosphere. Conservative estimates amount to 5 kt of methane, equivalent to 67% of the annual release from the entire North Sea. These observations most probably describe a reoccurring phenomenon in shallow shelf seas, which may have been overlooked before because of the transient nature of shallow water bedforms and technology limitations of high resolution bathymetric mapping

Challenges of achieving good environmental status in the Northeast Atlantic

The sustainable exploitation of marine ecosystem services is dependent on achieving and maintaining an adequate ecosystem state to prevent undue deterioration. Within the European Union, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires member states to achieve Good Environmental Status (GEnS), specified in terms of 11 descriptors. We analyzed the complexity of social-ecological factors to identify common critical issues that are likely to influence the achievement of GEnS in the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) more broadly, using three case studies. A conceptual model developed using a soft systems approach highlights the complexity of social and ecological phenomena that influence, and are likely to continue to influence, the state of ecosystems in the NEA. The development of the conceptual model raised four issues that complicate the implementation of the MSFD, the majority of which arose in the Pressures and State sections of the model: variability in the system, cumulative effects, ecosystem resilience, and conflicting policy targets. The achievement of GEnS targets for the marine environment requires the recognition and negotiation of trade-offs across a broad policy landscape involving a wide variety of stakeholders in the public and private sectors. Furthermore, potential cumulative effects may introduce uncertainty, particularly in selecting appropriate management measures. There also are endogenous pressures that society cannot control. This uncertainty is even more obvious when variability within the system, e.g., climate change, is accounted for. Also, questions related to the resilience of the affected ecosystem to specific pressures must be raised, despite a lack of current knowledge. Achieving good management and reaching GEnS require multidisciplinary assessments. The soft systems approach provides one mechanism for bringing multidisciplinary information together to look at the problems in a different light

Diversity and dynamics of rare and of resident bacterial populations in coastal sands

Coastal sands filter and accumulate organic and inorganic materials from the terrestrial and marine environment, and thus provide a high diversity of microbial niches. Sands of temperate climate zones represent a temporally and spatially highly dynamic marine environment characterized by strong physical mixing and seasonal variation. Yet little is known about the temporal fluctuations of resident and rare members of bacterial communities in this environment. By combining community fingerprinting via pyrosequencing of ribosomal genes with the characterization of multiple environmental parameters, we disentangled the effects of seasonality, environmental heterogeneity, sediment depth and biogeochemical gradients on the fluctuations of bacterial communities of marine sands. Surprisingly, only 3–5% of all bacterial types of a given depth zone were present at all times, but 50–80% of them belonged to the most abundant types in the data set. About 60–70% of the bacterial types consisted of tag sequences occurring only once over a period of 1 year. Most members of the rare biosphere did not become abundant at any time or at any sediment depth, but varied significantly with environmental parameters associated with nutritional stress. Despite the large proportion and turnover of rare organisms, the overall community patterns were driven by deterministic relationships associated with seasonal fluctuations in key biogeochemical parameters related to primary productivity. The maintenance of major biogeochemical functions throughout the observation period suggests that the small proportion of resident bacterial types in sands perform the key biogeochemical processes, with minimal effects from the rare fraction of the communities