Interim report Benthos Recruitment T1

This Interim Report presents the progress in the subproject Benthos-Recruitment up to 31 January 2008. The main objective of this study is to determine the impact of the Wind farm on the macrobenthic fauna i.e. the invertebrate in- and epifauna. In this project the focus was laid on the impact of the non-fished Wind farm on the settlement of juvenile benthos with special focus on juvenile bivalves, which in adults stages are a major food supply for fish and diving birds in the shallow coastal zone and a dominant factor in filtering particles from the water column enabling deposition and burial of organic material into the sediments.