Towards a habitat map of the Netherlands, German and Danish Wadden Sea

Abstract

To achieve better conservation and management of the NW-European Wadden Sea, about one hundred scientists from almost all institutes in and around the area have compiled the ecological literature and unpublished data in a series of handbooks and habitat maps.

The procedure used for compiling the habitat maps of the Wadden Sea is presented. The overall 1 : 100 000 outline map shows the habitats of the littoral and supralittoral parts of the Wadden Sea, a shallow sedimentary coastal sea 450 km long and bordered by the southeastern North Sea. The map is a potential-biological map for benthic organisms, based on an integration of the environmental factors emersion period and sediment composition. Conspicuous communities of organisms have been added (mussel beds, seagrass beds, salt marshes).

The map shows the overall geographical distribution of morphological forms and habitats. Based on this large-scale variation, the Wadden Sea has been subdivided into eight regions, which differ in respect of the importance of the barrier system, the shore of emerging flats, exposure to wave action, sediment composition, the distribution of seagrasses and salt marshes and the occurrence of islands within the area.