The main goals of the working group are the quality-controlled collection, archival and analysis of the Helgoland Roads phytoplankton, zooplankton and physico-chemical time series at Helgoland. An intensified collaboration with the sister time series at the Waddenseastation Sylt as well as continued collaboration with national and international partners are further goals

Ecological, physical and chemical time series are an essential tool for the study of climate-related topics. They can document long-term changes in the environment and also serve as background data for experimental studies. Dashboard Helgoland Roads

Helgoland has a long tradition in ecological time series research and the scientists of the Biological Station Helgoland produce a number of extremely valuable time series that have been used for scientific research by scientists around the world. The core time series are known as Helgoland Roads and comprise phytoplankton and zooplankton as well as physico-chemical parameters. But several shorter time series and spatio-temporal datasets also exist and Helgoland scientists are jointly setting standards by linking these data through detailed documentation, quality control and data management to facilitate detailed analyses long-term ecological change and their societal consequences.

Helgoland Roads forms an important component of the overall pool of AWI-LTO. Furthermore, they form an important component of the cooperation with the Wadden Sea Station Sylt.

All Helgoland Roads data are archived in the online repository PANGAEA. For our biodiversity data representative image material (as meta data for the numerical data sets) is also archived in the planktonnet database.

Since 1962, phytoplankton data has been collected several times a week and recorded qualitatively and quantitatively using the Uthermöhl method.

Zooplankton data are collected several times a week at Helgoland roads.                                                                                      

Nutrients (phosphate, nitrate/nitrite, ammonium) have been measured every working day since 1962, silicate since 1967.

Salt and temperature have also been measured regularly since 1962. Further temperature data is available from 1873 onwards.