© Maarten Zwarts

WP2. Sustained high-resolution field observations in estuaries

Responsible partner: NIOZ (Prof. dr. T.J. Bouma)

Intense long-term observations will focus on the intertidal area in the transition from channel onto the salt marsh. Two contrasting sites will be observed: a sheltered managed realignment site where vegetation expansion is expected but has not yet occurred, versus a wind-swept high-dynamic site with a broad flat-marsh transition. The measurement activities will be concentrated on deploying frames for hydrodynamic forcing and sediment transport rates in the water column, on landscape-scale topographic dynamics and developments, and on biotic developments in vegetation and benthos (sediment-dwelling animals and microbes) on the tidal flats. Regular 13 hours ship-based transects will supplement the measurements on the tidal flat with channel observations on sediment transport and sediment properties.