Compilation of measurements from two interdisciplinary STAR-shaped surveys in the North Sea: The ZISCH - Dataset

• Main Authors: Moll, Andreas, Radach, Günther, Aletsee, Ludwig, Becker, Gerd A, Brockmann, Uwe H, Ernst, Wolfgang, Förstner, Ulrich, Hühnerfuß, Heinrich, Karbe, Ludwig, Kattner, Gerhard, König, Peter, Martens, P, Steinhart, Hans
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 1990
• Subjects: Circulation and Transfer of Pollutants in the North Sea; MULT; Multiple investigations; North Atlantic Ocean; North Sea; Skagerrak; VA44; VA44_0/00; VA44_0/10; VA44_1/00; VA44_1/20; VA44_10/00; VA44_100/00; VA44_100/20; VA44_101/00; VA44_102/00; VA44_103/00; VA44_104/00; VA44_104/20; VA44_105/00; VA44_106/00; VA44_107/00; VA44_108/00; VA44_109/00; VA44_11/00; VA44_110/00; VA44_110/20; VA44_111/00; VA44_111/20; VA44_112/00; VA44_113/00; VA44_114/00; VA44_115/00; VA44_116/00; VA44_116/20; VA44_117/00; VA44_118/00; VA44_119/00; VA44_12/00; VA44_120/00; VA44_121/00; VA44_122/00; VA44_123/00; VA44_124/00; VA44_125/00; VA44_125/20; VA44_126/00; VA44_126/20; VA44_127/00; VA44_127/20; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.772084; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.772084

The measurements were obtained during two North Sea wide STAR-shaped cruises during summer 1986 and winter 1987, which were performed to investigate the circulation induced transport and biologically induced pollutant transfer within the interdisciplinary research in the project "ZISCH - Zirkulation und Schadstoffumsatz in der Nordsee / Circulation and Contaminant Fluxes in the North Sea (1984-1989)". The inventory presents parameters measured on hydrodynamics, nutrient dynamics, ecosystem dynamics and pollutant dynamics in the pelagic and benthic realm. The research program had the objective of quantifying fluxes of major budgets, especially contaminants in the North Sea. In spring 1986, following the phytoplankton spring bloom, and in late winter 1987, at minimum primary production activity, the North Sea ecosystem was investigated on a station net covering the whole North Sea. The station net was shaped like a star. Sampling started in the centre, followed by the northwest section and moving counter clockwise around the North Sea following the residual currents. By this strategy, a time series was measured in the central North Sea and more synoptic data sets were obtained in the individual sections. Generally advection processes have to be considered when comparing the data from different stations. The entire sampling period lasted for more than six weeks in each cruise. Thus, a time-lag should be considered especially when comparing the data from the eastern and the western part of the central and northern North Sea, where samples were taken at the beginning and at the end of the campaign. The ZISCH investigations represented a qualitatively and quantitatively new approach to North Sea research in several respects. (1) The first simultaneous blanket coverage of all important biological, chemical and physical parameters in the entire North Sea ecosystem; (2) the first simultaneous measurements of major contaminants (metals and organohaline compounds) in the different ecosystem compartments; (3) simultaneous ...