The North Sea Coasts
197
waters of the Southern Funen Archipelago, areas of extensive natural and
recreative value.
According to the Funen County Council (1991) Funen is representative of the rest of the Danish catchment area to the Kattegat with respect
to human population, fertilizer consumption and average nitrogen
runoff. Conclusions based on these investigations can therefore be
applied nationally, also because Funen is situated between the Belt Seas,
where the water of the Baltic and the North Sea meet. Independent
investigations in the Limfjord, Laholm Bay (on the Swedish west coast)
and the waters of the Southern Funen Archipelago indicate that the
marine environment was in reasonable ecological balance in the mid1950s. Deterioration started in the 1960s and has continued until now.
Reduction of the nutrient loading to the aquatic environment by at least
50% for nitrogen and 80% for phosphorus as enacted by the Danish
Parliament in the spring of 1987 in its Aquatic Environment Plan is the
main goal for water managers now. This will result in a predicted runoff
of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural lands equal to the runoff
in the mid 1950s (Funen County Council 1991).
7.2.2 Germany
The North Sea coastal areas of the German territory were regarded as
eutrophication problem areas by the Paris Commission (1992). The
coastal sea suffers from elevated nutrient concentrations during winter,
caused by the northerly directed currents from the Channel, loaded with
fresh water from the river Rhine, and by the rivers Elbe, Weser and Ems.
Anoxic conditions in the subtidal sediments of the German Bight have
been measured since 1989 and hypoxia « 2 mg O 2 1-1) regularlyoccurred from 1981 onwards, together with temporary die-off of the macrobenthic fauna (Gerlach 1990; Rachor 1990).
Knowledge of the nearshore effects of eutrophication is incomplete
and scanty. The Germans have a long tradition of descriptive ecological
research in the Wadden Sea (Nienburg 1925, 1927; Nienburg and
Kolumbe 1931; Linke 1939) but unbiased quantitative documentation on
the historic changes in the macrophyte communities is rare. One of the
best described areas is Konigshafen, an intertidal area or of 2 x 2 km on
the island of Sylt(Fig. 7.6) in the northern part of the German Wadden
Sea, described by Reise and co-workers.
In 1924, seagrasses covered a large area. They showed a restricted
distribution in 1934 and 1974, and were fairly common again in 1988
(Fig. 7.7). Wohlenberg (1935) reported a disease-related decline of
197
waters of the Southern Funen Archipelago, areas of extensive natural and
recreative value.
According to the Funen County Council (1991) Funen is representative of the rest of the Danish catchment area to the Kattegat with respect
to human population, fertilizer consumption and average nitrogen
runoff. Conclusions based on these investigations can therefore be
applied nationally, also because Funen is situated between the Belt Seas,
where the water of the Baltic and the North Sea meet. Independent
investigations in the Limfjord, Laholm Bay (on the Swedish west coast)
and the waters of the Southern Funen Archipelago indicate that the
marine environment was in reasonable ecological balance in the mid1950s. Deterioration started in the 1960s and has continued until now.
Reduction of the nutrient loading to the aquatic environment by at least
50% for nitrogen and 80% for phosphorus as enacted by the Danish
Parliament in the spring of 1987 in its Aquatic Environment Plan is the
main goal for water managers now. This will result in a predicted runoff
of nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural lands equal to the runoff
in the mid 1950s (Funen County Council 1991).
7.2.2 Germany
The North Sea coastal areas of the German territory were regarded as
eutrophication problem areas by the Paris Commission (1992). The
coastal sea suffers from elevated nutrient concentrations during winter,
caused by the northerly directed currents from the Channel, loaded with
fresh water from the river Rhine, and by the rivers Elbe, Weser and Ems.
Anoxic conditions in the subtidal sediments of the German Bight have
been measured since 1989 and hypoxia « 2 mg O 2 1-1) regularlyoccurred from 1981 onwards, together with temporary die-off of the macrobenthic fauna (Gerlach 1990; Rachor 1990).
Knowledge of the nearshore effects of eutrophication is incomplete
and scanty. The Germans have a long tradition of descriptive ecological
research in the Wadden Sea (Nienburg 1925, 1927; Nienburg and
Kolumbe 1931; Linke 1939) but unbiased quantitative documentation on
the historic changes in the macrophyte communities is rare. One of the
best described areas is Konigshafen, an intertidal area or of 2 x 2 km on
the island of Sylt(Fig. 7.6) in the northern part of the German Wadden
Sea, described by Reise and co-workers.
In 1924, seagrasses covered a large area. They showed a restricted
distribution in 1934 and 1974, and were fairly common again in 1988
(Fig. 7.7). Wohlenberg (1935) reported a disease-related decline of