Microscopic species make the diversity: a checklist of marine flora and fauna around the Island of Sylt in the North Sea

Abstract

Based on the past 150 years of research and ongoing time-series observations we give a comprehensive overview of marine species composition around the island of Sylt in the eastern North Sea. A total of 2758 species is listed according to the categories microplankton (591 species), zooplankton (137), nekton (118), benthic microflora (158), benthic macroflora (125), benthic micro-and meiofauna (1204), benthic macrofauna (509), birds and mammals (91), and neobiota (39). Plants account for a third of the species, most (85%) of them are microscopic Chromista. Among animals, 60% of the species are micro-and meiofauna though this faunal component is still insufficiently known. These figures are similar to records from the southern North Sea and therefore may by typical for temperate climate sedimentary coastal areas. A comparison with the total of marine species suggests that the small benthic fauna may be severely understudied over most of the world. Analysis of global change depends on sound baseline data and species inventories like this can assist in the detection of biodiversity changes. They emphasise rare species and the full range of local habitats while time-series measurements usually rely on a few selected habitats and biotic components to generate a very general picture of the state of an ecosystem.

Dissolved storage glycans shaped the community composition of abundant bacterioplankton clades during a North Sea spring phytoplankton bloom

“…All other physicochemical parameters, such as temperature, salinity, Secchi depth, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate, silicate as well as phytoplankton cell numbers and community composition, were obtained as part of the Helgoland Roads time series [ 47 , 78 ]. Phytoplankton biovolumes were determined according to Hillebrandt et al 1999 [ 35 ] in the framework of the Sylt Roads time series (see [ 3 ] for details). Both the Helgoland and Sylt Roads time series are conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Bremerhaven, Germany).…”

Uncharted biodiversity in the marine benthos: the void of the smallish with description of ten new Platyhelminth taxa from the well-studied North Sea

“…Presumably, the 'real' numbers of species will exceed the currently known numbers by an order of magnitude for all of the small sized benthic taxa hidden in the sediments. Around the island of Sylt, the relation of species richness of the small sized benthic fauna versus macrozoobenthos currently is 2.4 [32]. With better knowledge on the smallish benthic taxa this relation will increase in the future.…”

Grazers affect the composition of dissolved storage glycans and thereby bacterioplankton composition during a biphasic North Sea spring algae bloom

“…Phytoplankton biovolumes were determined according to Hillebrandt et al . 1999 (Hillebrand et al ., 1999) in the framework of the Sylt Roads time series (see (Armonies et al ., 2018) for details). Both, the Helogland and Sylt Roads time series are conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Helgoland, Germany).…”

“…Physicochemical parameters such as temperature, salinity, Secchi depth, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate, silicate as well as phytoplankton cell numbers and community composition were obtained as part of the Helgoland Roads time-series (Wiltshire et al, 2010;Kraberg et al, 2019). Phytoplankton biovolumes were determined according to Hillebrandt et al 1999(Hillebrand et al, 1999 in the framework of the Sylt Roads time series (see (Armonies et al, 2018) for details). Both, the Helogland and Sylt Roads time series are conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (Helgoland, Germany).…”