Contact Dr. Melanie Beck Tel.: +49-(0)441-798-3627 m.beck@icbm.de Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Brumsack               Tel.: +49-(0)441-798-3584 brumsack@icbm.de

This project focuses on heavy metal distribution in sediments of the Jade Bay and the Inner Jade. The analyzed heavy metal contents will be compared with former studies to estimate the development of heavy metal contents in the study area during the last decades. Furthermore, the present heavy metal contents will be compared with the natural background of the sediments from pre-industrial times. Results of earlier studies as well as own analyses of pre-industrial sediments will be used to evaluate the natural heavy metal background of sediments in the study area. Both the data of former studies and all new results will be integrated in the “Data Warehouse”.

To determine the present heavy metal contamination, surface sediments are sampled in the Jade Bay and the Inner Jade. The dense sampling grid varies from about 40 samples in January 2009 to about 170 samples taken during a sampling campaign from April to June 2009. From this sample set, the actual spatial distribution of the analyzed chemical substances can be deduced. The sampling campaign from April to June 2009 was carried out in cooperation with the “Benthic ecology” project to study possible effects of the chemical sediment properties on macrofauna communities.