The choice between keeping out chronic pollution versus acute mortality due to emersion: the case of the Tricolor oil pollution prevention in the Zwin nature reserve (Belgium)
Van Colen, C.; Vincx, M.; Degraer, S. (2005). The choice between keeping out chronic pollution versus acute mortality due to emersion: the case of the Tricolor oil pollution prevention in the Zwin nature reserve (Belgium), in: Herrier, J.-L. et al. (Ed.) Proceedings 'Dunes and Estuaries 2005': International Conference on nature restoration practices in European coastal habitats, Koksijde, Belgium 19-23 September 2005. VLIZ Special Publication, 19: pp. 665-667
In: VLIZ Special Publication. Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ): Oostende. ISSN 1377-0950, more
As a result of the impending Tricolor oil pollution in the Southern Bight of the North Sea the Zwin nature reserve was blocked from the North Sea by use of a sandbarrier. This method of protection has an important consequence for tidal flat ecosystems: the absence of the tide. The effects on the ecological very important bottom-life of the tidal flats could not be estimated beforehand. All species that were present before the damming up were still present afterwards. During the emersion period Talitrus saltator and Orchestia gammarellus were found in high densities while these species were absent before and after the emersion. Strikingly was the strong decline in abundance of all species which were present in high densities in a sampling station and the abundance of Aphelochaeta marioni and Pygospio elegans declining in all sampling stations during the period of emersion.
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