Project Details
Projekt
Match / mismatch of zooplankton- phytoplankton interactions, based on existing long-term information in the North Sea
Subject Area
Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
Term
from 2006 to 2010
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 29590736
Phytoplankton succession and the concurrence of Zooplankton are still poorly understood particularly in marine environments. We are still very unsure as to how climate change affects these organisms and their interactions. For the North Sea, however, we have the means to change this by analysing two existing databases, one with high temporal resolution and one with high spatial resolution, the Helgoland Roads (HR) and Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) databases, respectively. We will use a diverse array of methods (from standard linear statistics through to advanced multivariate data analysis based on the method of symbolic dynamics) to differentiate patterns of succession in the North Sea. We will determine the main steering processes e.g. grazing, light, nutrients, hydrography in these patterns and key events such as fresh and saltwater intrusions, or storms, which either drive or trigger timing of organisms. To search and identify such driving or trigger mechanisms within data we will employ the recently introduced method of bloom triggered averaging. We will investigate changes in the key events related to climate anomalies and global warming. Using this backdrop as a basis the co-occurrence of pelagic organisms and zooplankton/phytoplankton interactions will be determined and organism match-mismatch investigated related to climate shifts over the last 40 years.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
