Abstract
Shifting beach wrack composition in the SW Baltic Sea and its effect on beach use
Highlights
In the Baltic Sea region, as worldwide, coastal tourism and beach recreation provide important employment opportunities and income (Haller et al 2011; Pendleton 2007)
We conclude that the documented compositional shift in macrophyte communities at German Baltic Sea coasts since the onset of eutrophication has caused a shift of beach wrack composition toward species with a higher potential for olfactorial deterrence, which could explain recent concerns of beach managers about beach wrack despite the limited increase of biomass in the study area
Beach wrack composition The sampling conducted on Schleswig-Holstein's Baltic Sea coast in late summer 2012 and late summer 2013 indicates that the composition of beach wrack is geographically highly diverse (Fig. 2, for the detailed data set see Tables S1 to S3 in appendix)
Summary
In the Baltic Sea region, as worldwide, coastal tourism and beach recreation provide important employment opportunities and income (Haller et al 2011; Pendleton 2007). Referred to as beach wrack, mostly consists of seaweed and sea grass in different stages of decay Such beach wrack plays a key role in Baltic Sea shoreline ecosystems, providing important resources to organisms (Malm et al 2004) and stabilizing soft bottom substrates. Frequent removal of such beach wrack by grooming reduces species richness and ecological diversity of sandy coasts and increases the risk of beach erosion (Defeo et al 2009, Gilburn 2012, Malm et al 2004, Vanhooren et al 2011). There are, good arguments for removing beach wrack less frequently
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