In 2009, surface sediments were sampled in the Jade Bay during two sampling campaigns (Fig. 1). During the sampling campaign in January, the samples were collected during high tide using a small van Veen grab (yellow dots). The sampling grid of the second sampling campaign from April to June 2009 had a higher spatial resolution. Samples were taken in the eulittoral (green dots) and sublittoral (red and purple dots) and in both muddy and sandy mudflats. A van Veen grab was deployed from the ship to sample the sublittoral, whereas the eulittoral was sampled on foot during low tide. Fig. 1: Sampling of surface sediments in 2009 to analyse heavy metals and determine benthic communities