Every 6 years the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS) compiles a Quality Status Report on the condition of the trilateral Wadden Sea area (Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands). For the QSR’s of 2004 and 2009 ERA was assigned to contribute to the chapters on ecosystem development of Beaches and Dunes. There was a close cooperation with Jörg Petersen (Nature-Consult, Hildesheim, DE) who performed the vegetation analyses of all the Wadden Sea islands.
Evaluations concerned the overall effect of the lack of dynamic processes and that of the large amount of atmospheric deposition of Nitrogen since the sixties with a maximum around 1980-1990. Still the deposition is far too high in comparison to the situation in the first half of the 20th century. Also other antropogenic influences were analysed and comparisons were made between involved countries, e.g. concerning groundwater withdrawal for the sake of producing drinking water.
