Long-Term Ecological Research in the Northern Wadden

Wadden Sea Station Sylt (founded 1924, AWI since 1998)

Ecology of changing sandy coasts

Mission To understand and anticipate coastal change in ecosystem functioning, biodiversity and sediment dynamics in a warmer world Infrastructure Permanent staff: ~20 (7 scientists) PostDocs, Guests, Students: ~20 Facilities: Guest laboratories, Mya, field experiments Research themes Long-Term Research Morphodynamics Foodwebs Invaders Long-Term Ecological Research in the Northern Wadden Sea • Finger at the Pulse of the Wadden Sea • Broad spectrum of components enable a holistic view on ecosystem change • Generate hypotheses that are tested in dedicated experiments and studies • Natural variability vs man-made change • Scenarios of future coastal change

• Framework for external cooperations • Basis for policy advise

Van Beusekom, Armonies, Asmus, Buschbaum, Hass, Martens, Reise Sedimentology and remote sensing at AWI Wadden Sea Station Sylt

2003 2005 2009 Grain-size trend Sediment transport pattern

coarser Data basis: 60 months (monthly sampling since 2003)

no trend

finer Chr. Hass Coastal food webs and habitat networks

BioinvasionsBioinvasions –– BiodiversityBiodiversity -- CoastalCoastal foodfood webswebs

Food web past scenario Food web including invasive species Eriocheir sinensis Zoarces viviparus Mullus surmuletus

Carcinus maenas

Mytilus edulis Coastal Crassostrea Native gigas Invasive Native change Mnemiopsis leydii Invasive speciesspecies speciesspecies Pleurobrachia pileus

Coscinodiscus wailesii

Coscinodiscus concinnus Habitat network Habitat network including of the past Fucus vesiculosus Sargassum muticum invasive species

H. Asmus, R. Asmus Bioinvasion – a major impact on the Wadden Sea ecosystem Global warming

Change in: Ecosystem function Goods and services

Species introduction -Many exotic species originate from warmer coastal systems -Already established exotics facilitate the introduction of further aliens (invasional meltdown) -Example: Mussel beds of Mytilus edulis changed to an alien community warming habitat availability substrate availability

Chr. Buschbaum, K. Reise International Cooperation Themes

1. Morphodynamics 2. Ecological Interactions Wadden Sea North Sea – Rivers 3. Global Importance of the Wadden Sea 4. Ecological Effects of Climate Change 5. Culture Heritage and Society in the Wadden Area 1. Economic Trends, Developments, planning 2. Policy Kontakt

• Karsten Reise ([email protected]) • Ragnhild Asmus ([email protected]) • Justus van Beusekom ([email protected] • Harald Asmus ([email protected]) • Christian Hass ([email protected] ) • Christian Buschbaum ([email protected] ) • Peter Martens ([email protected] ) • Werner Armonies ([email protected] )