Benthic long-term series in the German Bight
Our aim is to understand natural fluctuations and directed climatic changes in benthic communities in the North Sea.
In the German North Sea, the animal communities of the seafloor experience substantial interannual fluctuations. Using long-term series, directed climatic changes in the midst of this interannual variability and their implications for the benthic animal communities are investigated. A total of four stations representative of different benthic communities in the German Bight have been sampled on a yearly basis since 1969. The resulting long-term data allow for the analysis of structural and functional changes in the ecosystem and provide an important basis for the ecological assessment of the marine environmental status.
The benthic long-term monitoring is included in POF-IV in Subtopics 4.2 and 6.1.