Setting

The site of the Boknis Eck Time Series (BE) is located at the entrance of the Eckernförde Bay (54°31.2' N, 10°02.5' E) in the southwestern Baltic Sea. It has a water depth of 28 m with muddy sediments. Riverine inputs into the Eckernförde Bay are negligible and thus the overall hydrographic setting at BE is dominated by the regular inflow of North Sea water through the Kattegat and the Great Belt.

Seasonal stratification occurs usually from mid-March until mid-September and causes pronounced hypoxia which sporadically become anoxic.

The location of BE is ideal to study:

 

  1. a coastal ecosystem under the influence of pronounced changes of salinity and
     
  2. biogeochemical processes sensitive to changes of dissolved oxygen.


Location of Boknis Eck time series station in the Eckernförde Bay, Baltic Sea