Just as the physical time series the biological AWI time series are also generated at pretty much all AWI sites and encompass almost all components of the marine foodweb from bacteria to fish. The data are collected useing a multitude of methods from counts to automated sensors and molecular methods to capture the full diversity local communities.
Collectively and individually our time series deliver vital baseline data for the evaluation of future climate change related impacts on marine ecosystems but also help to understand fundamental ecosystem processes in often not easily accesible geographic areas.
All our time series are also integral components of a large number of national and international collaborations in EU projects and Boards and organizations such as ICES and SCOR.
Important publications for some key AWI North Sea time series:
Helgoland Roads phytoplankton: Wiltshire, K. H., A. Kraberg, I. Bartsch, M. Boersma, H. D. Franke, J. Freund, C. Gebühr, G. Gerdts, K. Stockmann, and A. Wichels. 2010. Helgoland Roads: 45 years of change in the North Sea. Estuaries and Coasts DOI 10.1007/s12237-009-9228-y.
Helgoland zooplankton: Boersma, M., K. H. Wiltshire, S.-M. Kong, W. Greve, and J. Renz. 2015. Long-term change in the copepod community in the southern German Bight. Jornal of Sea Research 101:41-50.
The main goals are the quality-controlled collection, archival and analysis of the Helgoland Roads phytoplankton, zooplankton and physico-chemical time series at Helgoland as well as xxx at Sylt.
• To continue/establish time series of relevant and representative ecological parameters at different levels of ecosystem organization.
• To create well documented databases and archives of samples and specimens that are accessible to the scientific community.
• To analyze these time series for trends and cycles by means of modern analytical and modelling approaches.
• To relate the observed patterns to external forcing factors on regional and global scales by means of empirical and mechanistic models.
• To establish a cause-and-effect understanding of these relationships by analytical and experimental approaches.
• To model future ecological developments based on the observed relationships between forcing factors and ecological parameters.
• To provide knowledge to the broader scientific community, general public, resource managers, and policy makers to address complex environmental challenges.