The scientific programme comprises excursions, sampling, analytical lab work, and lectures concerning different topics of Wadden Sea and coastal research. The main items are:

• Introductory lectures on the coastal area of the southern North Sea and on Wadden Sea research
• Island excursion on Spiekeroog
• Sampling of pore water and sediments on a beach, on a tidal flat, and from boat
• Sediment microbiology (microscopy)
• Optical analysis of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM)
• Nutrient analysis
• Lectures on biogeochemistry of subterranean estuaries, operational oceanography and the time series station, nutrients and pore water biogeochemistry in tidal flats and the Wadden Sea
• Introduction to multivariate statistics
• Presentations by participants
• Sedimentology and ecology of tidal flats (walk across tidal flats to the mainland)
• Excursion on Quaternary geology, landscape development and settling history
• Molecular analysis of dissolved organic matter using Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FTICRMS)
• Advanced nutrient and trace metal analyses usinginductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy and ion chromatography
• Archaeal and bacterial contributions to microbial communities in sediments (fluorescence in-situ hybridisation microscopy and methane content)
• Statistical analysis of complex data sets and data compilation
• Lectures on coastal hydrogeology and submarine ground water discharge
• Synopsis with presentations by the participants

This programme is partly preliminary and may be subject to some changes.