Working group Ecosystem Analysis

Shrimp boat in front of Sylter coastline with lighthouse in the background Shrimp boat in front of Sylter coastline with lighthouse in the background Shrimp boat in front of Sylter coastline with lighthouse in the background

All is one

The wonderful world of food webs

In our working group "Ecosystem Analysis" we investigate how the food webs of our coastal ecosystems change and develop due to natural and human-induced influences. To do this, we use data from a wide variety of fields to combine them into food web models and find out how the ecosystem as a whole is evolving.

Our coastal waters are highly productive systems, with multiple food interactions between different organisms. While the term "food chain" was often used in the past, we now know that trophic relationships are much more complex and that the plants and animals in our coastal waters are interdependent in a diverse network - the food web.

Plankton and organic material form the basis of this network. From there, the energy provided is passed on to the higher trophic levels, such as fish, birds and marine mammals, via a large diversity of benthic organisms. Thus, in the coastal food web, each organism plays an important role in enabling the ecosystem to function. Natural, but more importantly, man-made impacts affect individual species, communities, and habitats. The resulting changes are transmitted directly and indirectly through the food web, so an initially small impact can have large effects on the entire ecosystem. Food web models help us to better understand these impacts and to better understand the structure and function of an ecosystem.

Research