Long-term dynamics of meso- and macrozooplankton at Helgoland Roads

The zooplankton time series Helgoland in the German Bight, about 60 km from the German mainland (54 11’N 7 54’E) is a high-frequency monitoring programme that has been investigating the phenology and dynamics of meso- and macrozooplankton at the Helgoland Reede Observatory since 1975. The programme was originally started in 1974 by Wulf Greve at the Biological Institute Helgoland and later continued in cooperation with the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the DZMB.

In addition to zooplankton data, the sampling includes a phytoplankton time series (since 1962) as well as time series for inorganic nutrients, salinity and temperature and several shorter time series (e.g. chlorophyll and other data from ferry box systems).

The high sampling frequency of the Helgoland Reede time series provides a unique opportunity to study long-term trends in abiotic and biotic parameters, but also ecological phenomena such as seasonal interactions between different components of the food web. At the same time, early detection of invasive species is enabled.