The Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) will conduct research for Public Works and Water Management on the seabed life and composition in the submerged part of the Wadden Sea. The research involves taking and analyzing seabed samples.
In addition, the research data must be made publicly accessible and usable. We want to use the Synoptic Subtidal Benthic Survey (SUBES) monitoring program developed by NIOZ for the research.
Although the samples will be taken in 2025, the research will not be completed until the end of 2027. The results can help us manage the Wadden Sea as a Natura 2000 area.
SUBES is not a new research program. Within the Wadden Mosaic project, research was also conducted in 2019 and 2022 into the composition of the seabed and seabed life in the submerged part of the Wadden Sea and Ems Dollard. This was then partly funded by the Waddenfonds.
Now, Public Works and Water Management is providing funding for the research.
Research Program
SUBES is an applied scientific research program where samples are taken from the seabed every 1000 meters in the non-emergent part of the Wadden Sea.
The samples are taken with a box core from a research vessel or from a rubber dinghy with a corer. In total, samples are taken from over 1000 points. All animal benthic organisms larger than 1 mm are collected from the standardized samples. They are individually identified, measured, and weighed in a laboratory.
In addition, the grain size of the different sediment fractions is determined. SUBES is the only research extensive enough to conduct Wadden Sea-wide analyses in the non-emergent mudflat.
Basic Monitoring
Sander Holthuijsen, project leader of Basic Monitoring Wadden Sea at Public Works and Water Management North Netherlands, about SUBES: ‘We are pleased that we can continue this program in this way. Insight into both the abiotics and the life in and on the Wadden seabed is very important. That life is one of the cornerstones of the Wadden Sea food web.’
Within Basic Monitoring, we collaborate with various partners on good Wadden Sea-wide monitoring that is suitable for both policy and (nature) management. The data released in this process is made as accessible as possible through the Wadden Data House.
Role of Nature Manager
As a nature manager of large waters, we want to gain insight into the ecological water and soil quality of the Wadden Sea. Important changes in the ecology of water systems begin with changes in the composition of soil (sediment) and seabed life (benthos). For this, scientific research in the submerged part of the Wadden Sea is necessary.
Tjisse van der Heide, project leader of SUBES within NIOZ: ‘We also find it important to know what is happening in the channels. That is why the research is continued.’
Since 2008, NIOZ, partly funded by Public Works and Water Management, has also been conducting scientific research into the seabed life and composition in the emergent part of the Wadden Sea. This takes place under the name Synoptic Intertidal BEnthic Survey (SIBES).