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Article
Open AccessBenthic community establishment on different concrete mixtures introduced to a German deep-water port
Concrete is a widely used building material in coastal constructions worldwide. However, limited natural resources used in the production process, as well as high CO2-emission due to the calcination process of li...
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Article
Open AccessMeta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe
Local biodiversity trends over time are likely to be decoupled from global trends, as local processes may compensate or counteract global change. We analyze 161 long-term biological time series (15–91 years) c...
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Article
Small-scale distribution modeling of benthic species in a protected natural hard ground area in the German North Sea (Helgoländer Steingrund)
Natural stony and coarse-grained habitats entail important ecological features for the marine environment. Due to the complexity of their bottom characteristics, they host a high biodiversity compared to surro...
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Article
Open AccessAn annotated checklist of macrozoobenthic species in German waters of the North and Baltic Seas
The present compilation is the first attempt to generate a comprehensive list of all macrozoobenthic species recorded at least once in the German regions of the North Sea and Baltic Sea including non-indigenou...
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Article
Tools to evaluate seafloor integrity: comparison of multi-device acoustic seafloor classifications for benthic macrofauna-driven patterns in the German Bight, southern North Sea
To determine the spatial resolution of sediment properties and benthic macrofauna communities in acoustic backscatter, the suitability of four acoustic seafloor classification devices (single-beam echosounder ...
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Article
Monitoring spatiotemporal trends in intertidal bedforms of the German Wadden Sea in 2009–2015 with TerraSAR-X, including links with sediments and benthic macrofauna
Satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) holds a high potential for remote sensing in intertidal areas. Geomorphic structures of the sediment surface generating patterns of water cover contrasting with exposed...
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Article
Cross-realm assessment of climate change impacts on species’ abundance trends
Climate change, land-use change, pollution and exploitation are among the main drivers of species’ population trends; however, their relative importance is much debated. We used a unique collection of over 1,0...
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Article
The Influence of Benthic Macrofauna on the Erodibility of Intertidal Sediments with Varying mud Content in Three New Zealand Estuaries
Fine sediment inputs can alter estuarine ecosystem structure and function. However, natural variations in the processes that regulate sediment transport make it difficult to predict their fate. In this study, ...
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Article
Macrofauna communities of tidal channels in Jade Bay (German Wadden Sea): spatial patterns, relationships with environmental characteristics, and comparative aspects
The increasing impact of human activities, global warming, rising sea levels, and alien species invasion are major drivers of ecological changes in the benthic ecosystems of the Wadden Sea. Repeated benthologi...
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Article
Benthos and demersal fish habitats in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea
We compiled data from different monitoring surveys to analyse and compare community and diversity patterns of fish, epi- and infauna in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North Sea in order to ide...
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Article
Meiofauna as food source for small-sized demersal fish in the southern North Sea
Meiofauna play an essential role in the diet of small and juvenile fish. However, it is less well documented which meiofaunal prey groups in the sediment are eaten by fish. Trophic relationships between five d...
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Article
Spatial variability in structural and functional aspects of macrofauna communities and their environmental parameters in the Jade Bay (Wadden Sea Lower Saxony, southern North Sea)
Spatial distribution and functional structure of intertidal benthic macrofauna in relation to environmental variables in the Jade Bay (southern North Sea) were studied and compared with other intertidal areas ...
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Article
Recently established Crassostrea-reefs versus native Mytilus-beds: differences in ecosystem engineering affects the macrofaunal communities (Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony, southern German Bight)
Since 1998 the non-indigenous Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg 1793) has been invading the Wadden Sea of Lower Saxony, southern German Bight. C. gigas settles predominantly on intertidal Mytilus-beds (M...
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Article
Variability of epifauna and temperature in the northern North Sea
Benthic epifauna in three areas of the northern North Sea was studied from 1999 to 2007 to investigate the effect of temperature changes on community structure and species abundance and biomass. Abundance and/...
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Article
Macrofauna succession in an infilling salt marsh clay pit
The high demand of clay as soil material for dikes leads to the problem of clay excavation in salt marshes, which is a major disturbance for salt marsh ecosystems. Clay was excavated from the salt marsh Peters...
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Article
Spatial variability of epifaunal communities in the North Sea in relation to sampling effort
Benthic epifauna was sampled in six areas from the German Bight towards the Norwegian Sea using a 2-m standard beam trawl. Nine replicates were taken in each area and year from 1999 to 2006. This data set (60–...
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Article
Microphytobenthos of the Dogger Bank: a comparison between shallow and deep areas using phytopigment composition of the sediment
The surface sediment characteristics related to benthic microalgae primary production were studied at the Dogger Bank, North Sea, in order to evaluate the potential role of microphytobenthos as a food source f...
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Article
20 Years of the German small-scale bottom trawl survey (GSBTS): A review
The German Small-scale Bottom Trawl Survey (GSBTS) was initiated in 1987 in order to provide complementary investigations to the International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) in the North Sea, using the same method...
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Article
Cold winter effects on benthic macrofauna communities in near- and offshore regions of the North Sea
In order to investigate the effect of severe winters on the long-term variability of benthic macrofauna communities four stations from the inner German Bight towards the Dogger Bank (North Sea) were sampled in...
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Article
Structure and function of macrofaunal communities influenced by hydrodynamically controlled food availability in the Wadden Sea, the open North Sea, and the Deep-sea. A synopsis
The study areas were situated in the East Frisian Wadden Sea, in the south-eastern North Sea, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, and in the deep-sea of the Arctic Ocean (Eurasian Basin), the eastern Mediterranean...
