Michael L. Zettler

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• Dr. rer. nat.
• WG Leader "Ecology of benthic organisms" at Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research

A benthological survey in the Benguela upwelling area off northern Namibia (located at 17.3°S and water depth ranging between 26 and 117m) showed the concentration of dissolved oxygen and the accumulation of organic-rich sediments to control macrozoobenthic community patterns. In contrast to highly biodiverse nearshore areas with well-structured sh...

The use of static indicator species, in which species are expected to have a similar sensitivity or tolerance to either natural or human-induced stressors, does not account for possible shifts in tolerance along natural environmental gradients and between biogeographic regions. Their indicative value may therefore be considered at least questionabl...

There is more than one reason to present a new key book on amphipods for the Baltic Sea. First, it is an attempt to consider all marine species observed at least once in the whole catchment area. Several species are figured and described comprehensively for the first time here. Second, due to the rapid increase of non-indigenous species, we include...

Biological long-term data series in marine habitats are often used to identify anthropogenic impacts on the environment or climate induced regime shifts. However, particularly in transitional waters, environmental properties like water mass dynamics, salinity variability and the occurrence of oxygen minima not necessarily caused by either human act...

Since the beginning of faunistic studies the class Bivalvia belongs to one of the best investigated groups in the North Atlantic region. In Germany there is also a long tradition concerning the research in this group of animals. Especially since the beginning of the 1990s, due to the increase of offshore activities associated with wind farms, gas p...

During the 31st Soviet Antarctic expedition in 1986/87, the mollusc fauna was studied at several stations in Ardley Cove, a bay of Maxwell Bay on King George Island, and in Fildes Strait (between King George Island and Nelson Island). The depths sampled were between the intertidal and 100 metres. While the two intertidal stations were visited sever...

The Humboldt Current System (HCS) off southwest America is known for its strong upwelling and the resulting high primary production and associated oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Macrozoobenthic species represent a group of organisms that are affected by the low oxygen concentrations in the OMZ. In January 2023, benthic diversity was investigated at 8...

In 2023, a series of inflow events affected the environmental conditions in the different basins of the western Baltic Sea. Traces of a cold, saline inflow in December 2022 were still visible in the bottom water of the Arkona Basin during February. In early summer, a baroclinic inflow build a thick bottom layer of saline water in the Belt Sea and r...

Fresh material of a nuculanoid bivalve of the genus Malletia, collected during an expedition of the R/V SONNE off Chile in 2023, allows the re-establishment of Malletia sorror (Soot-Ryen, 1957), a species previously considered a synonym of M. peruviana Dall, 1908. The morphology and anatomy of the new material is described and the characteristics t...

Neobiota monitoring was continued in September 2024 in the form of “rapid assessment” studies at six stations along the Baltic Sea coast (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Sassnitz-Stadthafen, Sassnitz-Mukran/Peters and Oderhaff-Kamminke). All six harbours sampled in the Baltic Sea proved to be suitable. A total of 99 taxa were id...

During the 31 st Soviet Antarctic Expedition in 1986/87, two species of nuculids have been found in Ardley Cove, a bay on King George Island, one of which is new to science and is described herein: Ennucula ardleyana n. sp. This species was found at two stations alive as single individuals in the intertidal zone and in a water depth of 100 meters....

During the 42 nd mapping meeting of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Malacology Working Group, which took place in Kamminke on the Island of Usedom from May 3 rd to 5 th , 2024, a total of 101 mollusc species were recorded. The focus was on some previously less intensively mapped TK25 quadrants. Among the 42 species of freshwater molluscs, Bithyni...

Shells of Adacnarca velaini (E. A. Smith, 1904) in the family Philobryidae (Bivalvia) were encountered on the Namibian continental shelf. The species lived off Namibia during the end of the last glaciation (approximately 42 – 13 ka BP, Late Pleistocene). The shells from Namibia were compared to specimens deposited in the Iziko Museums of South Afri...

The Benthos Ecology Working Group (BEWG) aims to study, describe and update on all aspects relevant to the ecology, functioning and interactions of marine benthic organisms across the Northeastern Atlantic, either living in or within the sediment, either animals or plants, either macro, meio or epibenthic, either littoral and sublittoral up to the...

This work presents two new species of the family Neoleptonidae (Bivalvia) found off Namibia, SW Africa: Neolepton torraense n. sp. and Neolepton san n. sp. Neolepton tor-raense n. sp. was found in a gravity core penetrating a Late Pleistocene stratigraphic sequence on the shelf and Neolepton san n. sp. was found alive on the upper bathyal slope. Th...

This work presents the second part of a study of the superfamily Galeommatoidea (Bivalvia) found on the continental shelf and upper bathyal slope off Namibia, SW Africa. One new species is proposed: Saxicavella trapezia n. sp. Three species (Galeomma tur-toni W. Turton, 1825, Planktomya magna Gofas, 2000 and Kellia suborbicularis (Mon-tagu, 1803))...

Simple Summary This study illustrates a baseline biodiversity snapshot of macrofauna inhabiting the seafloor in German marine protected areas (MPAs) if the North and Baltic Seas in 2020–2022, before the full closure for bottom-contact fishing. While the closure is now in place in some MPAs, it is still planned for the near future in others. The ana...

Three new terebellid species with two pairs of arborescent branchiae, serrated notochaetae with bulbous wings and avicular uncini in completely separate double rows are described from the Namibian coast, SW Africa, found during different expeditions between 2004 and 2022. These species were assigned to the genus Amphitritides, A. jirkovi sp. nov.,...

In 2022 a total of 146 phytoplankton species were recorded on 5 annual monitoring cruises. Mean annual biomass of phytoplankton in the study area was, at 1015 µg l-1, higher than the 20-year mean. The phytoplankton spring bloom started in early February and advanced quickly in the typical manner from south to north. As in previous years, also in sp...

Neobiota monitoring was continued in August 2023 in the form of rapid assessment surveys at six stations along the Baltic Sea coast (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Sassnitz-Stadthafen, Sassnitz-Mukran/Peters and Oderhaff-Kamminke). All six harbours sampled in the Baltic Sea proved to be suitable. A total of 101 taxa were ident...

In 2021 a total of 165 phytoplankton species were recorded on 5 annual monitoring cruises. Meanannual biomass of phytoplankton in the study area was, at 928 μg l-1, higher than the 20-yearmean. The phytoplankton spring bloom started in early February and advanced quickly in thetypical manner from south to north. In spring 2021, chlorophyll-a (Chla)...

The status assessment of the macrofauna community under the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires threshold values that mark the transition from good to moderate conditions (G-M boundaries). Using the example of the Benthic Quality Index (BQI) in the south-western Baltic Sea, we demonstrate the possibilities and restrictio...

The bay barnacle Amphibalanus improvisus (Darwin, 1854) has been found in Northern Germany in brackish marine sediments of the Holsteinian interglacial. Whereas the cause of the contemporary distribution of this species is anthropogenic and there is evidence that it has resulted mainly from shipping, the fossil findings demonstrate that A. improvis...

Simple Summary This study provides full-coverage maps of the habitats and biotopes in the German Baltic Sea at an unprecedented level of resolution. We combined geological and biological surveys to map the seabed and collected extensive data to classify different habitats and their inhabitants. Using newly established national guidelines and modell...

During two campaigns, one in the Kattegat (Denmark) in 2018, and the other off Namibia. in 2019, the same fish baited trap was applied to catch scavenging amphipods at two stations each. The water depths in both areas were between 50 and 130 m. In addition to very few individuals of other species (Isopoda and Amphipoda), the samples consisted mainl...

Introduction Astarte borealis holds great potential as an archive of seasonal paleoclimate, especially due to its long lifespan (several decades to more than a century) and ubiquitous distribution across high northern latitudes. Furthermore, recent work demonstrates that the isotope geochemistry of the aragonite shell is a faithful proxy of environ...

The spread of oxygen deficiency in nearshore coastal habitats endangers benthic communities. To better understand the mechanisms leading to oxygen depletion and eventually hypoxia, predict the future development of affected ecosystems, and define suitable mitigation strategies requires detailed knowledge of the dissolved oxygen (DO) history. Suitab...

In July 2022, an individual-rich occurrence of the Danube form of Theodoxus fluviatilis, which has been spreading for several years, was discovered in the Havel near Ketzin, and is referred to as T. fluviatilis f. euxinus in this study. This is the first record for the federal state of Brandenburg. The currently known distribution of this form in G...

In 2015, we studied the macrozoobenthic community composition along a dissolved oxygen gradient in the deep trough of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada). We sampled the seabed at nine stations using box corers (three replicates per station), starting in the outer Gulf and ending in the Lower St. Lawrence River Estuary. We found four different commun...

This study contributes to a better understanding of geogenic reef distribution in the southern Baltic Sea and highlights the implications of survey-related factors on automated boulder classification when utilizing data from multiple surveys. The distribution of hard grounds and reefs is needed as a baseline for geological and biological studies, b...

Simple Summary An increasing number of different habitats leads to an increasing number of species and has been considered a key driver for biodiversity. However, there is no common understanding on how to measure habitat diversity. In this study, we tested a newly proposed measure of substrate heterogeneity by classifying changes on the seafloor w...

This is the most comprehensive study to date on the distribution of macrofaunal assemblages of the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) off Namibia, one of the least studied benthic marine macrofaunas in the world. OMZs are mid- and bottom-waters at continental margins characterized by dissolved oxygen concentrations lower than 0.5 ml O2 l−1. We present the d...

Marine sublittoral sandbanks are essential offshore feeding grounds for larger crustaceans, fish and seabirds. In the southern North Sea, sandbanks are characterized by considerable natural sediment dynamics and are subject to chronic bottom trawling. However, except for the Dogger Bank, sandbanks in the southeastern North Sea have been only poorly...

The Baltic Sea serves as a model region to study processes leading to oxygen depletion. Reconstructing past low-oxygen occurrences, specifically hypoxia, is crucial to understand current ecological disturbances and developing future mitigation strategies. The history of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration in some Baltic Sea basins has been investig...

On the continental slope off Namibia three species of Con-dylocardiidae were found, including a new species: Con-dylocardia damara spec. nov. A comparison is made with morphologically similar Condylocardia species from the eastern Atlantic, the southwestern Pacific and the southern Indian Ocean. Remarks and distribution notes are given for the two...

Das Neobiota-Monitoring wurde im August 2022 in Form von ‚Rapid Assessment‘ Untersuchungen an den bisherigen vier Stationen in der Ostsee (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Oderhaff-Kamminke) fortgesetzt. Alle vier in der Ostsee beprobten Häfen haben sich als geeignet erwiesen. Zusätzlich wurden ab 2019 die Stationen Sassnitz-Mukr...

Long-term data sets are crucial in assessing the state of the marine systems and its ecological processes, to disentangle human-induced and natural changes, short-term fluctuations and long-term trends. A clear trend was observed in phytoplankton composition. The dominant phytoplankton classes in the Baltic Sea, diatoms and dinoflagellates, showed...

In this chapter, we describe the formation and mapping of marine benthic underwater habitats in offshore waters. We characterize the respective biotopes and discuss the anthropogenic pressures acting upon them. A variety of different classification systems have been developed within the last decades that, depending on the respective aim and scale,...

Mapping the structure of benthic macrofauna communities is essential for assessing and monitoring the state of the seafloor habitats. The presence and dominance of species and functional traits they exhibit alter the biotic and abiotic settings and provide a variety of ecosystem services. Species distribution influence biogeochemical fluxes, transp...

The short term impacts of fishing pressure were compared with the variability induced by environmental drivers on quantitative benthic community impact indicators. The different pressures were evaluated through comparative multifactor statistical analyses of their effects on macrofauna indicators in a Baltic Sea area with high natural disturbance....

A new species of pontogeneiid amphipod, Dautzenbergia concavipalma sp. nov., is described from cold-water corals off Angola. This is only the second observation of this genus in the South Atlantic. Important morphological characters in combination, which define the new species from its congeners, occur especially in the shape and size of gnathopod...

This study investigated the seasonality of acoustic backscatter intensities, exploring three habitats in the southwestern Baltic Sea: 1) a mussel-covered reef, 2) coarse sand and gravel, and 3) seagrass meadows. Backscatter information of different, partly calibrated frequencies (200, 400, 550, and 700 kHz) was collected in three seasons (May, Augu...

Simple Summary The sediments on the seafloor are inhabited by multiple macroscopic organisms such as shells and worms, which, among other things, influence the biogeochemical cycling by flushing the near-bottom water through their gangways. This is called bioirrigation, one of key processes in the functioning of marine sediments. The density of ani...

Three species were found from the continental slope off Namibia of which two species are new to science: Nucula kunenensis n. sp. and N. nama n. sp. A comparison was made with morphologically similar eastern Atlantic and South African species in the family Nuculidae. Nucula kunenensis n. sp. was found alive in silty sediment with high organic conte...

The rare in the German North and Baltic Sea waters and strictly protected sea star Crossaster papposus was found in 2019 and 2021 during monitoring activities in a marine protected area. This unique observation was achieved by using towed camera platform imagery along a transect in the Fehmarn Belt, which allows monitoring of a much larger area of...

The rare in the German North and Baltic Sea waters and strictly protected sea star Crossaster papposus was found in 2019 and 2021 during monitoring activities in a marine protected area. This unique observation was achieved by using towed camera platform imagery along a transect in the Fehmarn Belt, which allows monitoring of a much larger area of...

The molluscs Lucinoma capensis , Lembulus bicuspidatus and Nassarius vinctus are highly abundant in Namibian oxygen minimum zone sediments. To understand which nutritional strategies allow them to reach such impressive abundances in this extreme habitat we investigated their trophic diversity, including a chemosymbiosis in L. capensis , focussing o...

The Hirudinida and Branchiobdellida records from five collecting trips, especially by the second author, to Lithuania between 2004 and 2020 are presented. 23 species of the Hirudinida and one species of the Branchiobdellida could be identified at the 54 collected stations. These include eight species that were not previously known for this country....

The Benguela Upwelling system off the coast of Namibia shows a distinct variability of upwelling intensity, oxygen supply and primary production. Studies on the coupling of these temporal and spatial variations with microbially driven processes in the water column and in the sediment are only rudimentary. During the BUSUC II cruise the relationship...

Notes on the leech and crayfish worms fauna (Hirudinida and Branchiobdellida) of Lithuania with a preliminary checklist The Hirudinida and Branchiobdellida records from five collecting trips, especially by the second author, to Lithuania between 2004 and 2020 are presented. 23 species of the Hirudinida and one species of the Branchiobdellida could...

In 2020, a total of 153 phytoplankton species were recorded on 4 annual monitoring cruises reported here, marking a species diversity comparable to previous years. Mean annual phytoplankton biomass was lower in 2020 than in 2018 and 2019, but close to the 20-year mean. The spring bloom of 2020 was represented by only two cruises, taking place in Fe...

An increasing area of shallow-marine benthic habitats, specifically in the Baltic Sea, is affected by seasonal oxygen depletion. To place the current spread of oxygen deficiency into context and quantify the contribution of anthropogenic ecosystem perturbation to this development, high-resolution archives for the pre-instrumental era are needed. As...

Das Neobiota-Monitoring wurde im August/September 2021 in Form von ‚Rapid Assessment‘ Un�tersuchungen an den bisherigen vier Stationen in der Ostsee (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Oderhaff-Kamminke) fortgesetzt. Alle vier in der Ostsee beprobten Häfen haben sich als geeignet erwiesen. Zusätzlich wurden ab 2019 die Stationen Sa...

The availability of standardised biomass data is essential for studying population dynamics, energy flows, fisheries and food web interactions. To make the estimates of biomass consistent, weight-to-weight conversion factors are often used, for example to translate more widely available measurements of wet weights into required dry weights and ash-...

Freshwater molluscs in Eastern Lithuania. The inventory of freshwater molluscs of 25 water bodies (15 lakes, eight rivers and two small stagnant waters) was investigated in Eastern Lithuania in 2020. A total of 52 species (31 gastropods and 21 bivalves) were found. In comparison to the checklist of Lithuanian molluscs no additional species were rec...

The presented 3D seismic system operates three transducers (130 kHz) from a stationary lander and allows non-destructive imaging of small-scale objects within the top decimeters of silty sediments, covering a surface area of 0.2 m². In laboratory experiments, samples such as shells, stones, and gummy worms of varied sizes (down to approx. 1 cm diam...

The first mass occurrence of the alien, tube building polychaete Ficopomatus enigmaticus (Fauvel, 1923) was found in the Baltic Sea in 2020. Detailed surveys of private marinas, yacht clubs and boats as well as visual inspections, scratch sampling and a camera assisted remotely operated vehicle revealed its occurrence along a 12 km stretch of the l...

Traditional isotope sclerochronology employing isotope ratio mass spectrometry has been used for decades to determine the periodicity of growth increment formation in marine organisms with accretionary growth. Despite its well-demonstrated capabilities, it is not without limitation. The most significant of these being the volume of carbonate powder...

Four new species in the superfamily Galeommatoidea (Bivalvia) were found in sediment samples from the continental shelf and upper bathyal slope off Namibia, SW Africa: Kurtiella namibiensis n. sp., Bornia walvisensis n. sp., Scacchia aartseni n. sp. and Scacchia huberi n. sp. One live specimen of Bornia walvisensis n. sp. was brooding. A commensal...

Living specimens of the bathyal species Nuculana cornidei Altimira, 1974 were found on the continental slope off Namibia. The species was hitherto only known from NW Africa (Mauritania and Western Sahara). It is most likely that the species has been overlooked in the bathyal fauna from offshore tropical western Africa.

The little-known bivalve, Waisiuconcha haeckeli Cosel & Salas, 2001, was originally described from the continental slope off Mauritania. A wide distribution on the continental slopes off western Africa is suggested by additional finds from off Angola and Namibia.

During 2 sampling campaigns single valves of a minute species of Polititapes were dredged at 26-42 m depths off the northern coast of Namibia. The shells were found in muddy and silty sediment with a high diversity of benthic life. Polititapes parvovalis sp. nov. differs from all known West and South African Veneridae and is described as new. Becau...

In 2019 the RV Meteor cruised from Guadalupe in April/May to Cape Verde in June/July and to Namibia in August/September. The distance is about 10,000 km. The ship has a moon pool for installation of instruments. In Cape Verde we had a first glimpse of the already sparsely populated moon pool. We reached Namibian waters in mid-August. In mid-Septemb...

Multidimensional niche differentiation might increase the stability of coexistence by reducing overall niche overlap which might have implications on the dynamics of biological invasions. The oligohaline Baltic Seais inhabited by three native and one invasive corophiid amphipod species. These filter feeding crustaceans differ in their substrate pre...

Estimates of biomass often involve the use of weight-to-weight conversion factors for rapid assessment of dry-weights based metrics from more widely available measurements of wet weights. Availability of standardized biomass data is essential amid research on population dynamics, energy flow, fishery and food web interactions. However, for many spe...

Freshwater mollusc species were collected in Bulgaria (2007, Varna Region) and Greece (2013, Corfu Island) by one of the present authors (MLZ). Within this material, five new species were detected and described in the present article: Bithynia beloslavensis n. sp. from Bulgaria and Bithynia corfuensis n. sp., Pseudobithynia nigra n. sp., Gyraulus m...

The contribution of sediments to nutrient cycling of the coastal North Sea is strongly controlled by the intensity of fluxes across the sediment water interface. Pore‐water advection is one major exchange mechanism that is well described by models, as it is determined by physical parameters. In contrast, biotransport (i.e., bioirrigation, bioturbat...

Benthic animals inhabiting the edges of marine oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) are exposed to unpredictable large fluctuations of oxygen levels. Sessile organisms including bivalves must depend on physiological adaptations to withstand these conditions. However, as habitats are rather inaccessible, physiological adaptations of the OMZ margin inhabitants...

The amphipod fauna of Central Europe has changed dramatically over the last century. This change has increased dramatically over the past 30 years. This dynamic is well documented in northeast Germany. This study places it in a landscape-ecological context. An example of a displacement is Gammarus lacustris G.O. Sars, 1864, a circumpolar species wi...

Oxygen depletion threatens an increasing number of shallow water environments, specifically habitats below the seasonal halocline in coastal settings of the Baltic Sea. To understand the natural variations of dissolved oxygen levels on seasonal and inter-annual time-scales prior to the instrumental era, high-resolution archives are urgently require...

Die Schwebegarnele Paramysis lacustris (Czerniavsky, 1882) wurde erstmalig in Sachsen-Anhalt nachgewiesen. Im Juni und Juli 2019 konnten insgesamt 6 Exemplare im Grützer-bzw. Warnauer Vorfluter, Nebengewässer der Havel, gefangen werden. Die Fundumstände werden beschrieben. The mysid shrimp Paramysis lacustris (Czerniavsky, 1882) has been recorded...

Während zweier Urlaubsaufenthalte konnte in den Jahren 2013 und 2020 in zwei Bächen im östlichen Litauen die seltene blaue Version des Edelkrebses (Astacus astacus) beobachtet werden. Sie traten jeweils zusammen mit der normalgefärbten rot-braunen Variante auf. During two vacation stays in 2013 and 2020, the rare blue version of the noble crayfish...

In 2019, a total of 150 phytoplankton species were recorded on the 5 annual monitoring cruises reported here, marking high species diversity comparable to previous years. The phytoplankton production cycle was characterized by an early onset of the spring bloom and higher phytoplankton biomass than measured in 2018, particularly in the southern Bal...

Das Neobiota-Monitoring wurde im Juli 2020 in Form von ‚Rapid Assessment‘ Untersuchungen an den bisherigen vier Stationen in der Ostsee (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Oderhaff-Kamminke) fortgesetzt. Alle vier in der Ostsee beprobten Häfen haben sich als geeignet erwiesen. Zusätzlich wurden ab 2019 die Stationen Sassnitz-Mukran...

Species in the brackish and estuarine ecosystems will experience multiple changes in hydrographic variables due to ongoing climate change and nutrient loads. Here, we investigate how a glacial relict species (Saduria entomon), having relatively cold, low salinity biogeographic origin, could be affected by the combined scenarios of climate change an...

A new species of anabathrid gastropod, Afriscrobs ampliorscapus sp. nov., is described for the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The diagnostic features of the species, including its shell, head, male copulatory organ, operculum, and radula morphology, are described. The morphology is illustrated by digital photographs, digital drawings, and s...

A new species of anabathrid gastropod, Afriscrobs ampliorscapus sp. nov., is described from the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The diagnostic features of the species, including its shell, head, male copulatory organ, operculum, and radula morphology, are described. The morphology is illustrated by photographs, digital drawings, and scanning...

Das 39. Kartierungstreffen der Arbeitsgruppe Malakologie Mecklenburg-Vorpommern konzentrierte sich auf die Landschaft östlich der Stadt Friedland, wo bisher eine besonders lückenhafte Datenlage bestand. Es wurden insgesamt 92 Molluskenarten nachgewiesen, davon 55 Land- und 37 Süßwasserarten. The mollusc fauna between Friedland and the Brohmer Berge...

Bioturbation is one of the key mediators of biogeochemical processes in benthic habitats that can have a high contribution to seafloor functioning and benthic pelagic coupling in coastal waters. Previous studies on bio-turbation were limited to point locations and extrapolations in single regions, but have not accounted for regional differences und...

Im Rahmen des 38. Kartierungstreffens der Arbeitsgruppe Malakologie Mecklenburg-Vorpommern wurde die Land- und Süßwassermolluskenfauna des Inselsees bei Güstrow und seiner Umgebung erfasst. Dadurch konnte ein wichtiger Beitrag zur Molluskenkartierung in unserem Bundesland geleistet werden, denn es wurden in dem in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten nur s...

Das Neobiota-Monitoring wurde im September 2019 in Form von ‚Rapid Assessment‘ Untersu-chungen an den bisherigen vier Stationen in der Ostsee (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Oderhaff-Kamminke) fortgesetzt. Alle vier in der Ostsee beprobten Häfen haben sich als geeignet erwiesen. Zusätzlich wurden ab diesem Jahr die Stationen Sa...

Knowledge of spatial patterns in subtidal hard substrate assemblages is necessary for the development of effective marine management strategies. However, patterns are intrinsically scale-dependent, and little is known about the relative importance of vertical and horizontal position changes across scales. In the southwestern Baltic Sea, major physi...

This official report of R/V METEOR cruise M157 informs about objectives, the narative of the cruise, preliminary results and contains a sampling list.

Dating to 1979, the HELCOM time series on species composition, biomass and abundance of phyto- and zooplankton as well as macrozoobenthos from Kiel Bay to the Eastern Gotland Basin was continued in 2018. The phytoplankton spring bloom was well developed in the mid of March in the Belt Sea as a diatom bloom (Skeletonema marinoi, Thalassiosira spp.),...

Different irrigation or ventilation strategies by macrofauna may provide a competitive advantage to tolerant species invading impacted benthic systems and alter benthic-pelagic coupling. To comparatively analyze the effects of an exotic and a native polychaete burrower on sediment-water exchanges, two laboratory experiments were performed. In the f...

Benthic habitat condition assessments are a requirement under various environmental directives. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), for example, challenges member states in a European sea region to perform comparable assessments of good environmental status and improve coherence of their monitoring programmes by 2020. Currently, North S...

The study explores the fine scale spatial and temporal distribution of the entire demersal fish and flatfish assemblages in a brackish ecosystem with a special focus on the abiotic and biotic drivers influencing the abundance of the three commercially and ecologically important flatfish species, namely flounder (Platichthys flesus), plaice (Pleuron...

Das Neobiota-Monitoring wurde im September 2018 in Form von ‚Rapid Assessment‘ Untersu-chungen an den bisherigen vier Stationen in der Ostsee (Wismar-Wendorf, Rostock-Schmarl, Stralsund-Dänholm, Oderhaff-Kamminke) fortgesetzt. Alle vier in der Ostsee beprobten Häfen haben sich als geeignet erwiesen. Es wurden insgesamt 79 Taxa identifiziert, 66 Mak...

1. In this study, non-destructive seafloor imaging techniques were employed to assess the benthic community structure of a recently discovered boulder reef within the central Arkona Basin of the Baltic Sea. 2. Data indicate that geographical isolation, water column stratification and temporary oxygen deficiency create an exceptional reef habitat i...

Dating to 1979, the HELCOM time series on species composition, biomass and abundance of phyto- and zooplankton as well as macrozoobenthos from Kiel Bay to the Eastern Gotland Basin was continued in 2017. The phytoplankton spring bloom started its development already in February in Kiel Bay and even in the central Arkona Basin, but it occurred in t...

During several cruises in the southern Baltic Sea conducted in different seasons from 2014 to 2016, sediment cores were collected for the investigation of pore-water biogeochemistry and associated nutrient fluxes across the sediment-water interface. Six stations were positioned along a salinity gradient (ranging from 22 to 8) and covered various se...

Although an invasion of the brackish water biotopes was to be expected with the appearance of several Ponto-Caspian amphipods in German freshwaters two decades ago (and earlier), only recently (two years ago) the conquest of the mesohaline Baltic Sea could be observed. This discrepancy is a fortiori of interest as previous experimental studies show...

Bioirrigation: the animal-induced exchange of solutes between pore water and overlying water - is a key process in sediments with profound implications for biogeochemical processes such as nutrient cycling and organic matter regeneration at the sediment water interface. There is an urgent need to understand how a changing environment will affect th...

A new species of caprellid amphipod, Aeginella corallina sp. nov., is described from cold-water corals off Angola. This is the first observation of this genus in the South-Atlantic. The taxon is fully described and figured and is compared with the only known species of the genus, A. spinosa, occurring in deep waters of the northern hemisphere. Both...