Suspended particulate matter budget for the German Bight

An SPM budget is set up for the German Bight, based on measurements of the TUVAS project between November 1989 and March 1992. The budget includes SPM fluxes from/into estuaries, from the atmosphere, into the sediment (both of the German Bight proper and the German Wadden Sea) and through the seaward boundaries of the budget area. The budget further includes inventories of the fine sediment (grain size < 20 μm), which has been subject to anthropogenic impact during the last 100 years. The SPM fluxes through the seaward boundaries exceed all other fluxes by more than one order of magnitude. With an SPM deposition of about 3 Mt yr−1 (10% of the marine fluxes) the German Bight is an effective sink for SPM.