Major Changes in the Ecology of the Wadden Sea: Human Impacts, Ecosystem Engineering and Sediment Dynamics

Human activities, particularly sediment disturbances from exploitation, have fundamentally altered the Wadden Sea's ecology by disrupting natural biological controls over sediment dynamics. This shift has transformed the intertidal zone from a spatially heterogeneous and internally regulated system to one that is externally driven and homogenous. The study reconstructs historical benthic production to illustrate how ecosystem engineering species—those that significantly influence sediment stability—interact with abiotic factors like wind, tide, and nutrient inputs. These interactions shape community structure and energy flow in food webs, suggesting that local species composition can lead to distinct geomorphological and functional outcomes even under similar environmental conditions. This research provides a framework for understanding how human impacts disrupt the balance between biological and environmental controls in soft-bottom ecosystems.

Eriksson, B. K., van der Heide, T., van de Koppel, J., Piersma, T., van der Veer, H. W., & Olff, H. (2010). Major Changes in the Ecology of the Wadden Sea: Human Impacts, Ecosystem Engineering and Sediment Dynamics. Ecosystems, 13(5), 752–764. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-010-9352-3