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Wadden Sea

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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Vadehavet (Danish); Waddenzee (Dutch); Wattenmeer (German)

Definition

Tide influenced coastal zone of the southeastern North Sea. During low tide, the globally largest coherent system of sandy to muddy tidal flats emerge between the mainland and the barrier islands. The Wadden Sea evolved during late Holocene transgression and is a high productive ecosystem with strongly fluctuating environmental conditions. Besides the extended tidal flats, main morphological units are barrier islands, dunes, ebb tidal deltas, tidal inlets, tidal channels, salt marshes, and estuaries.

Introduction

The Wadden Sea forms the coastal margin of the southeastern North Sea, a broad and shallow shelf of the passive continental margin of Northwestern Europe. It extends from Den Helder (The Netherlands) to Blåvands Huk (Denmark) (Figure 1) over 490 km. The average width of the tidal flat area is 5–25 km. Toward the North Sea, the Wadden Sea is sheltered over long distances by a chain of barrier...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Research Department, Senckenberg am Meer, Südstrand 40, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Achim Wehrmann

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  1. Achim Wehrmann
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Correspondence to Achim Wehrmann .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Institute of Earth Science, KÖPPEN-Laboratory, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    JÖrn Thiede

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Wehrmann, A. (2016). Wadden Sea. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_143

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