Uwe Selig

University of Rostock

1. Changes in living conditions caused by natural variability or anthropogenic activities elicit distinct responses of species, populations and communities. Bioindication is the recording of such responses and the entity measured is called a “bioindicator”. 2. A bioindicator can be any relevant component or measure that can be used to estimate the...

1. Water is the most abundant compound on the surface of the Earth and the chemical basis for life on Earth. 2. The strong polarity of the water molecule assigns special physical and chemical properties to water as the direct environment in which aquatic organisms live, propagate and interact. 3. The surface tension of water creates the pleuston ha...

The vegetation as well as diaspore banks were investigated in two coastal lakes on the German Baltic Coast. The distribution of vegetation and diaspores was analysed at two depths (0.5, 1.5 m) on transects. Seedling densities and germination rates of the diaspore banks were determined in a laboratory study that investigated dependencies on salinity...

Submerged vegetation and diaspore banks were investigated in three shallow brackish lagoons along the German southern Baltic Sea coast. The distribution of vegetation and diaspores was analysed at three depths (0.5, 1.0, 1.5m) on three transects in each lagoon along salinity and nutrient gradients. Thirteen taxa of submerged vegetation were identif...

A sedimentological study of two dimitic lakes in North-Eastern Germany provided a record of anthropogenic impacts and historical changes of water quality. The upper 50 cm sediment profiles were compared for major nutrients and selected major trace elements. The sediments were dated by 210Pb and 137Cs measurement. The upper 50 cm sediment profiles r...

Submerged vegetation and the diaspore bank were investigated in the shallow brackish lagoon Salzhaff (southern Baltic Sea). The distribution, density and coverage of vegetation and diaspores were analysed at seven water depths along five transects.The submerged vegetation was dominated by the angiosperms Zostera marina, Zannichellia palustris and P...

During monthly investigations from 1996 to 2000, a hypolimnetic layer of phototrophic sulphur bacteria (Chromatium spp.) were observed in Lake Dudinghausen, a small dimictic lake in northern Germany. This paleolimnological study was initiated to detect if the occurrence of sulphur bacteria was related to cultural eutrophication or reflected natural...

The submersed aquatic vegetation, distinguished as nine different plant communities, was compared with sediment parameters (i.e. mean grain size, sorting level, silt fraction, lime and organic matter as well as content of total carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus) in four brackish lagoons in northeastern Germany (southern Baltic Sea). The s...

The distributions of three submersed macrophytes Najas marina, Myriophyllum spicatum and Zostera noltii were surveyed in the inner coastal lagoons of the German Baltic Sea. Growth and photosynthetic performances of these species were investigated in crossed laboratory experiments (salinity X irradiance). Z noltii showed the potential to grow in mes...

Paleolimnological techniques were used to identify environmental changes in and around Lake Dudinghausen (northern Germany) over the past 4800 yr. Diatom-inferred total phosphorus (DI-TP) changes identify four phases of high nutrient levels (2600–2200 BC, 1050–700 BC, 500 BC–AD 100 and AD 1850–1970). During these high DI-TP phases, fossil pollen, s...

Coastal waters are transitional zones between limnic waters and marine systems. The anthropogenic impact on these water bodies is high and a rapid change of trophic level was observed within the last 50 years. In the Darss-Zingst Bodden chain (southern Baltic Sea – Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany), the change in trophic state during the last th...

Seasonal variability of dissolved and particulate P forms was investigated in two lakes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (North-East Germany): the polymictic Lake Bützow and the dimictic Lake Dudinghausen. Both lakes had a different trophic status according to the classic parameter total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a as well as phytoplankton biomass an...

It has been postulated that the content of polyphosphates in microalgae call be Used as a biological indicator for eutrophication. Therefore the total cellular phosphorus (TCP) and polyphosphate concentration in the green alga Chlorella vulgaris were investigated ill relation to the amount of available inorganic phosphorus in the medium. Phosphorus...

Different extraction procedures were employed to characterise the polyphosphate granules in autotrophic planktonic organisms, the green microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. strain PPC 6803. The effectiveness of these methods was assessed using epifluorescence microscopic analysis of DAPI stained specimens as well a...

Vertical profiles of soluble and particulate nutrients were analyzed at the end of summer stratification in two dimictic lakes located in northeast Germany. In addition, irradiance and plankton biomass were determined. The concentrations of particulate organic carbon and phytoplankton biomass in the epilimnion were higher in Lake Tiefer than in Lak...

The cyanobacterial diversity in the pelagic of a shallow estuary at the Southern Baltic Sea has been investigated by a combination of classical morphological data and a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based molecular approach. The aim of the study was to investigate possible changes in the composition of the cyanobacterial community along the salin...

Phosphorus release from the sediment in two dimictic lakes was compared during the summer stratification. Soluble reactive phosphate (SRP) and also NH4 + were released from the anoxic sediment into the water column in Lake Dudinghausen and Lake Tiefer. The sediment released NH4 + and SRP only when oxygen and nitrate/nitrite were absent. Besides the...

Phosphate binding and P-release in the sediment of the eutrophic shallow Lake Bützow are described based on sediment profiles, particle size fractions and incubation experiments. Total phosphorus was about 15% higher in the upper 0.5 cm layer than in the 0.5–1 cm layer. Phosphorus binding varied with sediment depth. Hot P→NaOH and P→HCl were the do...

Soluble and particulate phosphorus forms in the surface water of the eutrophic shallow Lake Bützow were investigated from March to November 1998. Solu-ble reactive phosphorus (SRP) and dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) of the filtered water were analysed. Suspended particulate matter (SPM) was characterized by particulate organic matter (POM), par...

In the Warnow River and its tributaries in North Germany, measurements were made to characterise the longitudinal patterns of nutrients in the riverbed and lake sediments. The sediment composition was analysed based on dry weight, organic matter, mean grain size and concentration of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, aluminium and sulfur. Sediment...

Submerged vegetation was investigated in four coastal waters on the southern German Baltic Coast (Schleswig-Holstein). The recent vegetation was characterized investigated along transects. A number of 24 taxa were found and the depth distribution varied between 1 and 3 m. Based on the analysis of herbar specimen and literature the historical vegeta...

A classification system of macroalgae and angiosperms for the inner and outer coastal waters of the German Baltic coast was developed according to the guidelines of the European Water Framework Directive. These guidelines ask for a five step classification scheme (high, good, moderate, poor, bad) of the ecological state based on submerged macrophyt...

Submerged vegetation of inner coastal waters of the German Baltic Sea was analysed from 1999 to 2007. 108 transects in 23 water bodies were investigated and 28 species, including seven charophyte species, were documented. The depth limit for submerged vegetation varied between 0.5 m and 5.3 m in the coastal waters. In addition to the vegetation sal...

For the purpose of the WFD implementation all water bodies of the Baltic coast were classified in types of similar characteristics based on a hierarchical system of biological and hydrological factors. This typology forms the basis for the development of classification approaches, the further monitoring programs and the future management plans. The...

The aim of this study was to develop a diatom – total phosphorus (TP) transfer function by weighted averaging (WA) regression. This function was based on WA -calculated TP -optima and tolerance values (against TP) of altogether 430 diatom taxa. Two different calibration sets of diatom assemblages were used: Periphytic diatoms from 17 lakes (68 samp...