Wadden Area Research Articles

The Icenian Crag of southeast Suffolk

Sections in the Icenian Crag at Chillesford, Aldeburgh, Thorpe Aldringham, Sizewell, Dunwich, Wangford and Southwold are described. Pollen and mollusc assemblages from these sites are tabled. The Icenian Crag is shown to contain a temperate pollen assemblage, resulting from a regional deciduous forest of the time. The assemblage is provisionally correlated with the Pastonian stage of the Middle Pleistocene, as Tsuga is very poorly represented and Abies is absent. The mollusc assemblages are divided into a sublittoral or infralittoral facies, a sheltered estuarine or wadden area facies, an open coast facies and a high-boreal or sub-arctic silty deposit facies, probably infralittoral. The unconformable relation of the Icenian Crag to Red and Coralline Crags at Chillesford and Aldeburgh and to Baventian sediments at Easton Bavents indicates a strong marine transgression over Lower Pleistocene deposits in Pastonian times. The beach plain of the Westleton Beds is included within this transgressive phase. Pollen assemblages from deep boreholes at Sizewell and Southwold show that the transgression deposits overlie Lower Pleistocene sediments correlated with the PreLudhamian, Thurnian and Baventian stages. A correlation is suggested between the Pastonian and the Cromerian III Interglacial of the Netherlands.

VAUCHERIA BIROSTRIS n.sp. AND SOME FURTHER REMARKS ON THE GENUS VAUCHERIA IN THE NETHERLANDS

Vaucheria birostris is described as a new species belonging to the section Anomalae which so far contained only two species: V. canalicularis and V. cruciata. V. birostris was found in the Dutch Wadden area, on the isle of Schiermonnikoog, growing in a cart-track in a primary dune valley. A revised list of Vaucheria species for the Netherlands is presented. Some additional remarks are made on the distribution and morphology of V. alaskana, V. pseudogeminata, V. medusa and on V. arcassonensis, V. coronata, V. intermedia, V. minuta.

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHIC WATERLINE SURVEY OF AN ESTUARY

The project of a "barrage across an estuary in Northern Germany was accompanied by a programme to monitor the hydrologic and morphologic situation. This became necessary in order to avoid dangers resulting from the sensitivity of the shallow wadden area to human interference. Various methods to record the morphology were tested. The aerial photographic waterline survey proved superior as it supplies a complete and economic record and allows accurate analysis of the topography. The principle consists in taking aerial photographs at short time intervals between low water and high water, each photo showing a different waterline. The scale chosen was 1:18000, corresponding to a flight altitude of 2700 metres. Rectification of the distorted photos requires reference markers to be distributed over the survey area which measures about 140 km^. By using simultaneous tide gauge records, contour lines can be constructed from the photographed waterlines. This morphologic record is supplemented by submarine survey of the estuary. It is expected that details of sediment transport and of tidal prism changes may be revealed. Predicted and actual effects of the barrage will be compared, which might lead to a better understanding of such coasts.