Mecklenburg Bight

FIGURE 2.5 East component (upper panel) and north component (lower panel) of current measured between Kiihlungsborn and Lolland (left) in the Mecklenburg Bight during DYNOCS95. Salinity is superimposed by contour lines. (See color plate)... 

Fehmarnbelt are blocked by the Darss Sill and recirculated into the Mecklenburg Bight that is, they do not generally contribute to the inflow into the Arkona Sea. Only when high water levels in the Kattegat (cf. Chapters 2 and 3) strengthen the barotropic flow through the narrow straits, the Fehmarnbelt s near-bottom water can spill over the Darss SiU and spread further to the east into the Arkona Sea. 

Klein, H., 1998. OPUS-Current Measurements Mecklenburg Bight and Fehmambelt. Data Report. Berichte des Bundesamts fiir Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie, 17, pp. 150. 

January Februgty March April May June Jnly August September October November December FIGURE 9.8 Slope of trends of different months (1990-2005, upper panel) in regions Mecklenburg Bight (3), Arkona Sea (6), Gotland Sea (15), Bothnian Sea (19), and Bothnian Bay (23). 

Probably, the approach three requires the most intensive work but includes some remarkable advantages Changes can be identified in time and space because the results are related not only to time series at selected sites but to a whole area. One example of such a repeated surface sediment mapping was already presented for the Mecklenburg Bight by Leipe et al. (2005) and Kersten et al. (2005). 

FIGURE 15.6 Seasonal patterns of chi a (representative monthly means of decades or a half decade) in (a) Mecklenburg Bight (n = 229), (b) Arkona Sea (n = 746), (c) Bornholm Sea (n = 436), and (d) Eastern Gotland Sea (n = 339), based on averages of 0-10 m depth. Note that data from June 2000-2005 and some from September 2000-2005 are missing. 

Season Belt Sea (incl. Mecklenburg Bight) Baltic Proper... 

Furthermore, several populations inside the estuaries and in the offshore waters are only sustained over the life span of the established individuals (mainly a few years, e.g., Ophiura albida in the Mecklenburg Bight). Moreover, colonization is a frequent process, mediated by water influx from adjacent areas. 

As to be expected benthic species composition varied considerably in this part of the Baltic (Table 17.1). The most western stations 010 and 012 at the Fehmarn Belt and the Mecklenburg Bight are characterized by the bivalves Abra alba and Arctica islandica and the cumacean Diastylis rathkei, whereas the area around the Darss Sill (stn. 030) were most frequently colonized by the gastropod Hydrobia ulvae, the bivalve Mytilus... 

The distribution areas for many marine species are restricted to a salinity higher than 12 psu (e.g., Kinne, 1964). The Fehmarnbelt area and Mecklenburg Bight with a salinity range of 15-23 psu form a natural border regarding the distribution of these species. As... 

An increase in the overall species number after 1993 saline water inflow is al so obvious in the Mecklenburg Bight (stn. 012) and in the Fehmarnbelt area (stn. 010). This is not surprising since the greater amount of the saline water inflow from the North Sea enters the Baltic Sea via the Great Belt, the Fehmarnbelt and the Mecklenburg Bight. 

FIGURE 17.13 Development of abundance and biomass (a) and species number and Shannon diversity (b) at the monitoring station 012 (M2) in the Mecklenburg Bight 1991-2005. The water depth is 25 m. [1996 no data exist.]... 

FIGURE 17.14 Relative abundance of most dominant species at station 012 (Mecklenburg Bight, B in Fig. 17.1) during the past 15 years. [1996 no data exist.]... 

Zettler, M. L., Bonsch, R., Gosselck, E, 2001. Distribution, abundance and some population characteristics of the ocean quahog, Arctica islandica (Linnaeus, 1767), in the Mecklenburg Bight (Baltic Sea). Journal of Shellfish Research, 20, 161-169. 

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