Environmental compatibility of sand replenishment in the surf zone off the Island of Sylt, 2009-2010

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Main Authors: Armonies, Werner, Buschbaum, Christian
Format: Dataset Open Access
Language:en
Published: PANGAEA 2010
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author Armonies, Werner
Buschbaum, Christian
author_facet Armonies, Werner
Buschbaum, Christian
collection Datos científicos de ciencias marinas y ambientales
contents For coastal protection, the longshore bar in the surf zone off the western shore of the island of Sylt was replenished in summer 2009. Some 300-400 m³ of sand were dumped per m of coastline. We studied (1) the faunal composition of macrobenthos in the breaker zone along the island of Sylt, and (2) the effects of sand dumping on macrobenthos (a) after 9 months (before - after sampling design), and (b) after four years (comparison of replenished and neighboring non-replenished sites). The longshore bar consists of coarse sand, but medium and even fine sand can be found where the bar is eroded. These differences in sediment composition cause faunal heterogeneity on a small spatial scale (100s of m) while the fauna is rather homogeneous on larger (km to 10s of km) scales. During sand replenishment, the eroded sites with fine and medium sand were covered with coarse sand. This caused a loss of fine- and medium sand species and the number of benthic species decreased accordingly. After one year, macrobenthos abundance and biomass did not differ between replenished and control sites. After four years, species number and species identity had levelled out as well. The longshore bars typically experience strong turbulence with frequent sediment disturbance and the fauna living there need to be adapted. Sand replenishment turned out to be a disturbance equivalent to the natural ones and therefore did not change the coarse sand fauna.
format Dataset Open Access
id pangaea_https___doi_org_10_1594_PANGAEA_874933
institution PANGAEA
language en
publishDate 2010
publisher PANGAEA
record_format pangaea
spellingShingle Environmental compatibility of sand replenishment in the surf zone off the Island of Sylt, 2009-2010
Armonies, Werner
Buschbaum, Christian
AWI_Coast; Coastal Ecology @ AWI; LTER_Benthos; Macrobenthic long-term series in the German Bight
For coastal protection, the longshore bar in the surf zone off the western shore of the island of Sylt was replenished in summer 2009. Some 300-400 m³ of sand were dumped per m of coastline. We studied (1) the faunal composition of macrobenthos in the breaker zone along the island of Sylt, and (2) the effects of sand dumping on macrobenthos (a) after 9 months (before - after sampling design), and (b) after four years (comparison of replenished and neighboring non-replenished sites). The longshore bar consists of coarse sand, but medium and even fine sand can be found where the bar is eroded. These differences in sediment composition cause faunal heterogeneity on a small spatial scale (100s of m) while the fauna is rather homogeneous on larger (km to 10s of km) scales. During sand replenishment, the eroded sites with fine and medium sand were covered with coarse sand. This caused a loss of fine- and medium sand species and the number of benthic species decreased accordingly. After one year, macrobenthos abundance and biomass did not differ between replenished and control sites. After four years, species number and species identity had levelled out as well. The longshore bars typically experience strong turbulence with frequent sediment disturbance and the fauna living there need to be adapted. Sand replenishment turned out to be a disturbance equivalent to the natural ones and therefore did not change the coarse sand fauna.
title Environmental compatibility of sand replenishment in the surf zone off the Island of Sylt, 2009-2010
topic AWI_Coast; Coastal Ecology @ AWI; LTER_Benthos; Macrobenthic long-term series in the German Bight
url https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874933