Description: The cores show a sediment succession of the late Pleistocene and the Holocene. A core photograph is depicted, followed by a detailed core scetch and a depositional code for the depositional environment and facies. Samples taken for grain size, pollen, foraminifera, diatoms, macrobenthos, radiocarbon dating, XRD analysis and XRF data are marked in the columns right of the plot of the core. In the last column additional notes are given. The cores were taken in the backbarrier tidal flats of the Eastfrisian Island Norderney (central Wadden Sea, German North Sea coast) within the frame of the multidisciplinary national research project 'WASA – Wadden Sea Archive'. WASA has been undertaken to reconstruct submerged palaeo-landscapes in the central Wadden Sea. It was running from 2016 to 2020 (Bittmann et al. 2022). Each of the three cores were collected in the subital with a modified version of the vibrocorer VKG6 (medconsultant GmbH) which was used from aboard the research vessels FK SENCKENBERG (Senckenberg am Meer, SaM, Wilhelmshaven) and BURCHANA (Niedersächsischer Landesbetrieb für Wasserwirtschaft, Küsten- und Naturschutz, NLWKN, Norderney). The vibrocorer was deployed in full-weight load mode (1.1 t gravity weight) and was equipped with PVC liners of 5000 mm length maximum and 100 mm diameter. The cores were described based on the field proven core catalogue by Capperucci et al. (2022), which was developed on the base of all 140 cores taken in the area of Norderney within the WASA project. The core catalogue allows the identification of the local sedimentary sequences and their characteristic facies and depositional environments of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of the central Wadden Sea.

Description: The cores show a sediment succession of the late Pleistocene and the Holocene. A core photograph is depicted, followed by a detailed core scetch and a depositional code for the depositional environment and facies. Samples taken for grain size, pollen, foraminifera, diatoms, macrobenthos, radiocarbon dating, XRD analysis and XRF data are marked in the columns right of the plot of the core. In the last column additional notes are given. The cores were taken in the backbarrier tidal flats of the Eastfrisian Island Norderney (central Wadden Sea, German North Sea coast) within the frame of the multidisciplinary national research project 'WASA – Wadden Sea Archive'. WASA has been undertaken to reconstruct submerged palaeo-landscapes in the central Wadden Sea. It was running from 2016 to 2020 (Bittmann et al. 2022). Each of the three cores were collected in the subital with a modified version of the vibrocorer VKG6 (medconsultant GmbH) which was used from aboard the research vessels FK SENCKENBERG (Senckenberg am Meer, SaM, Wilhelmshaven) and BURCHANA (Niedersächsischer Landesbetrieb für Wasserwirtschaft, Küsten- und Naturschutz, NLWKN, Norderney). The vibrocorer was deployed in full-weight load mode (1.1 t gravity weight) and was equipped with PVC liners of 5000 mm length maximum and 100 mm diameter. The cores were described based on the field proven core catalogue by Capperucci et al. (2022), which was developed on the base of all 140 cores taken in the area of Norderney within the WASA project. The core catalogue allows the identification of the local sedimentary sequences and their characteristic facies and depositional environments of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of the central Wadden Sea.

Description: The cores show a sediment succession of the late Pleistocene and the Holocene. A core photograph is depicted, followed by a detailed core scetch and a depositional code for the depositional environment and facies. Samples taken for grain size, pollen, foraminifera, diatoms, macrobenthos, radiocarbon dating, XRD analysis and XRF data are marked in the columns right of the plot of the core. In the last column additional notes are given. The cores were taken in the backbarrier tidal flats of the Eastfrisian Island Norderney (central Wadden Sea, German North Sea coast) within the frame of the multidisciplinary national research project 'WASA – Wadden Sea Archive'. WASA has been undertaken to reconstruct submerged palaeo-landscapes in the central Wadden Sea. It was running from 2016 to 2020 (Bittmann et al. 2022). Each of the three cores were collected in the subital with a modified version of the vibrocorer VKG6 (medconsultant GmbH) which was used from aboard the research vessels FK SENCKENBERG (Senckenberg am Meer, SaM, Wilhelmshaven) and BURCHANA (Niedersächsischer Landesbetrieb für Wasserwirtschaft, Küsten- und Naturschutz, NLWKN, Norderney). The vibrocorer was deployed in full-weight load mode (1.1 t gravity weight) and was equipped with PVC liners of 5000 mm length maximum and 100 mm diameter. The cores were described based on the field proven core catalogue by Capperucci et al. (2022), which was developed on the base of all 140 cores taken in the area of Norderney within the WASA project. The core catalogue allows the identification of the local sedimentary sequences and their characteristic facies and depositional environments of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of the central Wadden Sea.

Description: To determine the spatial resolution of sediment properties and benthic macrofauna communities in acoustic backscatter, the suitability of four acoustic seafloor classification devices (single-beam echosounder with RoxAnn and QTC 5.5 seafloor classification system, sidescan sonar with QTC Swathview seafloor classification, and multi-beam echosounder with QTC Swathview seafloor classification) was compared in a study area of approx. 6 km2 northwest of the island of Helgoland in the German Bight, southern North Sea. This was based on a simple similarity index between simultaneous sidescan sonar, single-beam echosounder and multi-beam echosounder profiling spanning the period 2011–2014. The results show a high similarity between seafloor classifications based on sidescan sonar and RoxAnn single-beamsystems, in turn associated with a lower similarity for the multi-beam echosounder system. Analyses of surface sediment samples at 39 locations along four transects (0.1 m2 Van Veen grab) revealed the presence of sandy mud (southern and western parts), coarse sand, gravel and cobbles. Rock outcrops were identified in the north-eastern and eastern parts. A typical Nucula nitidosa–Abra alba community was found in sandy muds to muddy sands in the northern part, whereas the southern part is characterised by widespread occurrence of the ophiuroid brittle star Amphiura filiformis. A transitional N. nitidosa–A. filiformis community was detected in the central part. Moreover, the southern part is characterised by a high abundance of A. filiformis and its commensal bivalve Kurtiella bidentata. The high number of A. filiformis feeding arms (up to ca. 6,800 per m2) can largely explain the gentle change of backscatter intensity along the tracks, because sediment composition and/or seafloor structures showed no significant variability.

Description: The joint research project WIMO (Wissenschaftliche Monitoringkonzepte für die Deutsche Bucht/Scientific Monitoring Concepts for the German Bight, NE North Sea) aims at providing methods for detection and analysis of seabed habitats using modern remote sensing techniques. Our subproject focuses on hydroacoustic techniques in order to gain information about seafloor environments and sediment dynamics. In a timeframe of four years, several key areas in the German Bight were repeatedly observed using different hydroacoustic gear (i. e. sidescan sonars, single/multibeam echo sounders and sub-bottom profilers). In order to ground-truth the acoustic data, hundreds of grab samples and underwater videos were taken. With these techniques it is possible to distinguish between different seafloor habitats, which range from muddy to sandy seafloors (esp. near the barrier islands) to rugged or vegetated/populated reefs around Helgoland. The conducted monitoring program revealed seasonal changes regarding the abundance of the sand mason worm (Lanice conchilega) and the brittle star (Amphiora filiformis) as well as ongoing sedimentary processes driven by tidal currents and wind/storms. It was also possible to determine relationships between sediment characteristics and benthos in some key areas. An essential part of our project included a comparison between the datasets obtained with different hydroacoustic devices, configurations, and evaluation methods in the same study areas. The investigation reveals that there could be distinct differences in interpreting the data and hence in the determination of prevailing seafloor habitats, especially in very heterogeneous areas and at transition zones between the habitats. Therefore, it is recommended to employ more than one hydroacoustic system (preferably a singlebeam device combined with a wide-swath sonar system) synchronously during a survey in order to gain more reliable and detailed information about the seafloor environments. The results of this project study form an important contribution to ongoing and future projects, in particular with regard to the technical configuration of the sonar systems, the workflows concerning post-processing and validation of the hydroacoustic data as well as the monitoring concepts that were worked out. However, a full automation of these workflows is not feasible. For the time being, measurements, post-processing and data evaluation still need supervision and expert knowledge.