Table Of ContentEcological Studies 245
Dietrich Mossakowski ·
Ulrich Irmler Editors
Terrestrial
Coastal
Ecosystems in
Germany and
Climate Change
Ecological Studies
Analysis and Synthesis
Volume 245
SeriesEditors
JosepG.Canadell
CSIROOceansandAtmosphere,Canberra,ACT,Australia
SandraDíaz
NationalUniversityofCórdoba,Córdoba,Argentina
GerhardHeldmaier
UniversityofMarburg,Marburg,Germany
RobertB.Jackson
StanfordUniversity,Stanford,CA,USA
DelphisF.Levia
UniversityofDelaware,Newark,DE,USA
Ernst-DetlefSchulze
MaxPlanckInstituteforBiogeochemistry,Jena,Germany
UlrichSommer
GEOMAR|HelmholtzCentreforOceanResearchKiel,Kiel,Germany
DavidA.Wardle
NanyangTechnologicalUniversity,Singapore,Singapore
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(cid:129)
Dietrich Mossakowski Ulrich Irmler
Editors
Terrestrial Coastal
Ecosystems in Germany
and Climate Change
Editors
DietrichMossakowski UlrichIrmler
InstituteforEcologyandEvolutionary InstituteforEcosystemResearch
Biology UniversityofKiel
UniversityofBremen Kiel,Germany
GroßSchwansee,Germany
ISSN0070-8356 ISSN2196-971X (electronic)
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Preface
With the beginning of the 1990s, the human impact on climate with increasing
temperature and rising sea level became more evident. These severe future
predictions were the motivation to initiate a large investigation program by the
German Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF: Ministry for
Education and Research) with the aim of finding solutions to the impacts of the
increasing global temperature with warmer climate also in Germany. The whole
packet of scientific projects goes by the name “Klimafolgenforschung”
(consequences of climate change). For the northern German states, the sea level
risewasintheforegroundofinterestbecauseatthecoasttheincreaseofthesealevel
will have extreme consequences at the usually flat coasts with adjacent plain
hinterland. Thus, the Federal State of Germany represented by the BMBF started
together with the four northern countries, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Schleswig-
Holstein, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a scientific program: Consequences of
the climate dependent impacts on non-regenerable ecosystems at the North and
Baltic Sea coast. Finally, scientific groups of the four universities, University of
Oldenburg, University of Bremen, University of Kiel, and the University of
Greifswald, formed a scientific network with the aim of investigating the increase
of temperature and the sea level rise in the coastal ecosystems that include plants,
vegetation,soils,andfaunalelements.Overall,tenresearchgroupswerepartnersin
thisnetworkthatlastedthreeyearsfrom1997totheendof1999.
Thephilosophyofecosystemresearchwasthebackgroundfortheselectionofthe
individual scientific projects.Onthe one hand, atleast most importantelements of
coastalecosystems should be reflected by the research. Onthe other hand, the two
gradientsdevelopedatthecoastshouldbeincluded:thewest–eastgradientthatalso
representsaclimategradientwithawarmerandmoisterAtlanticclimateintheWest
andadryer,morecontinentalclimateintheEastandtheelevationgradientfromthe
sea level to higher elevations on differently formed coastal ecosystems. Addition-
ally, the North and the Baltic Sea differed tremendously by the environmental
factors: North Sea with expressed tides and the influence of partly enormous west
winds and Baltic Sea without remarkable tides and influenced more by eastern
winds.Asthelargeareaandvarietyofecosystemsonbothcoastsmakesitimpossi-
bletoinvestigateallpartsofthecoastsinhighextensities,theworkinggroupsagreed
to exclude beaches from their projects and to concentrate on salt grassland and on
dunes.Ascoastalecosystemswerealreadyinthefocusoftheresearchgroupsbefore
v
vi Preface
this investigation started, only those parts should be considered which were not
studiedbefore.Theresearchshould:
1. Reflect the west–east changes with respect to the temperature increase and the
potentialextinctionorinvasionofplantsandanimals
2. Focus on the changes of the elevation gradient and the differences between the
NorthSeaandtheBalticSea
3. Alsoconsiderresultsfromexperimentalstudiestosupportandexplainecological
resultsfromfieldstudies
4. Also investigate solutions to avoid harmful consequences for the foreland
biocenoses at both coasts, e.g., is de-embankment a practical solution to help
forelandplantsandanimalstosurvive
5. Excludebeachesandcliffcoastsbecauseitwouldblastthefinancialpotentialof
theproject
6. Also exclude problems of grazing because these impacts were studied already
sufficientlyinformerresearchnetworks(e.g.,researchtotheNationalParkofthe
WaddenSea)
In addition to the results found by the abovementioned research network, few
chapters are included that were not directly part of projects. They complete some
aspects of historical changes, in particular, if datasets are needed that also include
datafromlong-terminvestigations.
Unfortunately, after finishing the project with the usual final reports, some
responsiblescientistspassedtooearlyorbecamesick,whichpreventstheintention
to quickly realize a comprehensive book with the main results of the scientific
network. Therefore, we are grateful to Springer for giving us now the opportunity
to publish the results in the series Ecological Studies. Additionally, we are much
obligedtotheGermanBMBFandthefournorthernGermanstatesforthefinancial
support as well as the four universities to give us the needed equipment for the
research, such as cars, laboratories, or facilities for the experiments. Many official
agencies helped us with data or permissions for field studies necessary for our
research,e.g.,sealevelsforbothcoasts,temperaturedatainthepast,orprojections
of climate development in the study area. These were Lower Saxony Service for
WaterEconomyandCoastalPreservation(NLWK),Norden,gaugedataofthecoast
betweenBremenandCuxhavenprovidedbyJohannesChittka(NLWKN,Stade),of
theNorthSeacoastinSchleswig-Holsteinbybureauofruralareas,Büsum,forthe
Baltic Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein by the Agency for Water and Shipping
Affairs, Lübeck, of the Baltic Sea coast near Greifswald by the Federal Agency
forSeaShippingandHydrography(BSH),Rostock,GermanWeatherService,and
the administrations of the National Parks “Niedersächsisches Wattenmeer,”
“Schleswig-HolsteinischesWattenmeer,”“VorpommerscheBoddenlandschaft.”
Our sincere thanks are also due to the following colleagues: Ralph Annutsch
(BSH, Hamburg) and Hans von Storch (MPI for Meteorology, Hamburg) for
providing and helping with the prediction of climate change scenarios, Susanne
Preface vii
Armstrong (ABG), Stefan Beese (Nationalpark Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania),
Thomas Buss (Amt für Wasserwirtschaft, Abteilung Hochwasserschutz, Planung
WS 31, Hamburg), Maartens Jans (team investments—Seascheldt division,
Antwerpen: sigmaplan, Begique), StALU Vorpommern, Greifswald, pers. comm.
2011 for information on de-embankment sites, Heinz-Christian Fründ for detailed
informationonhisstudysites,MatthiasGrünwaldandJulienPétillonforproviding
their original data, and Günter Mühlner (Untere Naturschutzbehörde Kreis
Wesermarsch) for information on Kleinensieler Plate. Heinrich Krummen,
Jaderberg,forprovidingthebasicsofthemapsindicatingthestudysitesatBorkum
andWangerooge.Hans-BertSchikorafortheidentificationofspidersfromMellum
and Wursten Coast. Dipl. Ing. Raimund Kesel to provide his leveling data of
Wursten Coast. Hans Turin for his kindness to allow the use of his distribution
maps, Stephan Gürlich for allowance to use his Estuary-Elbe-Maps, and to
MieczysławStachowiakwhokindlyentrustedushispointmapsofPolishPogonus
species.
Furthermore,manyinstitutesofthefouruniversitieshelpedwiththeirequipment
butwerenotpartnersintheresearchnetwork.
GroßSchwansee,Germany D.Mossakowski
Kiel,Germany U.Irmler
November2021
Contents
PartI IntroductionandDescriptionofStudyArea
1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
GerhardWeidemann,UlrichIrmler,andDietrichMossakowski
2 ClimateChangesAlongtheGermanCoast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
MichaelSchirmerandGerhardWeidemann
3 CoastalLandscapesoftheNorthSeaandtheBalticSea. . . . . . . . . 19
GerhardWeidemann
4 GeographyandStudySites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Hans-PeterBlume,WolfgangDormann,andDietrichMossakowski
5 ClimateandWeatherConditionsAlongtheGermanShores. . . . . . 47
DetlevHandelmannandGerhardWeidemann
6 InundationRegimesoftheGermanCoastsandtheImpactofthe
RisingSeaLevel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
StefanSeiberlingandWolfgangDormann
7 TheSurfaceSalinityoftheNorthSeaandBalticSeaArea. . . . . . . 67
WolfgangDormann
8 Soils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Hans-PeterBlume
PartII HistoricalandFutureChangesoftheDuneandSaltMarsh
Fauna
9 GeneralAspectsofCoastalVegetationattheNorthSea
andtheBalticSea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
DetlevMetzing
10 PredictingPlantDistributionShifts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
DetlevMetzingandAlbrechtGerlach
iixx
x Contents
11 GeneralAspectsofCoastalCarabidBeetleandSpiderFauna
attheNorthSeaandtheBalticSea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
DietrichMossakowskiandUlrichIrmler
12 ChangesoftheFaunaofDiggerWaspsandBees(Hymenoptera,
Aculeata)oftheNorthFrisianIslandofSylt:EffectsofClimate
Change?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
VolkerHaeseler
13 HistoricalChangesintheCarabidBeetleFauna
ofMecklenburg-WesternPomerania. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
GerdMüller-Motzfeld
14 DistributionofSpidersandCarabidBeetlesAlong
aGeographicalGradient. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
UlrichIrmler,WolfgangDormann,andDietrichMossakowski
15 PredictingCarabidBeetleDistributionShifts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
WolfgangDormann,RagnaMißkampf,DetlevMetzing,
andDietrichMossakowski
PartIII ExperimentalAssessmentsoftheEffectsofClimateChange
onHabitatsandTheirOrganisms
16 FieldExperiment:EffectsofIncreasedTemperatureonaTidalic
Fluvisol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Hans-PeterBlume,UlrichIrmler,UdoMüller-Thomsen,
andUlrichPfisterer
17 FieldExperiment:EffectsofMicroclimateModificationonSoil
OrganismsandAggregateFormationinDuneSand. . . . . . . . . . . . 299
DetlevHandelmann,ThiemoKlittmann,andGerhardWeidemann
18 ExpectedVegetationDynamicsinSaltMarshes
attheNorthSeaCoastUnderChangedInundationConditions
asanEffectofClimateChange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
IreneVagts
19 EffectsofSedimentationandErosionontheDevelopment
ofVegetation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
IreneVagts
20 TideSimulationExperiment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
UlrichIrmler
21 StormSurgesasNaturalExperiments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
WolfgangDormannandDietrichMossakowski
