The North Sea: an overview

An overview is given of the natural systems of the North Sea: water-circulation, topography and geology of the sea floor, sediment transport, influx of trace constituents (nutrients, trace metals, organic compounds), biological systems and their interrelations. The effects of pollution and other human activities are discussed as well as the difficulties in assessing them where they are obscured by natural changes.

Author(s):  
Martin Hovland ◽  
Mike Talbot ◽  
Snorre Olaussen ◽  
Lars Aasberg
Keyword(s):  

Ocean Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Sterl ◽  
H. van den Brink ◽  
H. de Vries ◽  
R. Haarsma ◽  
E. van Meijgaard

Abstract. The height of storm surges is extremely important for a low-lying country like The Netherlands. By law, part of the coastal defence system has to withstand a water level that on average occurs only once every 10 000 years. The question then arises whether and how climate change affects the heights of extreme storm surges. Published research points to only small changes. However, due to the limited amount of data available results are usually limited to relatively frequent extremes like the annual 99%-ile. We here report on results from a 17-member ensemble of North Sea water levels spaning the period 1950–2100. It was created by forcing a surge model of the North Sea with meteorological output from a state-of-the-art global climate model which has been driven by greenhouse gas emissions following the SRES A1b scenario. The large ensemble size enables us to calculate 10 000 year return water levels with a low statistical uncertainty. In the one model used in this study, we find no statistically significant change in the 10 000 year return values of surge heights along the Dutch during the 21st century. Also a higher sea level resulting from global warming does not impact the height of the storm surges. As a side effect of our simulations we also obtain results on the interplay between surge and tide.


1915 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 263-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Hill

In December 1908 I received from Mr A. Earland a fragment of a rock, believed to be chalk, which had been dredged from the bottom of the North Sea. Mr Earland also informed me that he believed boulders of a similar rock occurred in some profusion near what is known as the Kinnaird Deep, off the northern coast of Aberdeenshire. As a result of our correspondence a little later, Professor D'Arcy Thompson asked me to investigate such boulders as might presumably be chalk, dredged from the northern parts of the North Sea during the operations of the s.s. Goldseeker, a vessel employed by the North Sea Fisheries Commission, and he has kindly permitted me to include a description of the boulders found by the Goldseeker in the details of this paper.


1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (10) ◽  
pp. 321-322
Author(s):  
Kjell Baalsrud

The Outer Oslofjord has recently been subject to concern. 1. The Inner Oslofjord. Covers an area of 193 km2, is 160 m deep and is separated from the Outer Oslofjord by the narrow Drøbak sound with a sill depth of less than 20 metres. This part of the Oslofjord constitutes an enclosed body of sea water, sensitive to pollution, receiving sewage from approximately 650,000 inhabitants. In spite of modern sewage treatment, the fjord still suffers torn eutrophication problems resulting in reduced oxygen in the deep water, and areas of anoxic bottom water. The fjord is an important recreation area. 2. The Outer Oslofjord. Recent findings indicate that eutrophication is slowly increasing. An increasing eutrophication of the Outer Oslofjord wil also increase the need (and cost) of better sewage treatment in the Inner Oslofjord. 3. The North Sea. The quality of the water in the Oslofjord area is also dependent on the water it receives from the Skagerrak. The Skagerrak water will periodically receive polluted water from the southern North Sea and Kattegat. When these episodes coincide with water renewals between the Oslofjord and the Skagerrak, the fjord will receive polluted water from other countries. The Oslofjord water will in turn discharge into the Skagerrak, but due to the general circulation pattern, this will mainly influence the Norwegian south-east coast.


Antiquity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (358) ◽  
pp. 1095-1097
Author(s):  
Hans Peeters

Over the past decade or so, the submerged prehistoric archaeology and landscapes in the area that is known to us today as the North Sea have received increasing attention from both archaeologists and earth scientists. For too long, this body of water was perceived as a socio-cultural obstacle between the prehistoric Continent and the British Isles, the rising sea level a threat to coastal settlers, and the North Sea floor itself an inaccessible submerged landscape. Notwithstanding the many pertinent and pervasive problems that the archaeology of the North Sea still needs to overcome, recent research has made clear that these rather uninspiring beliefs are misplaced.


1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 135-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W.R. Dutton ◽  
D.F. Jefferies ◽  
A.R. Folkard ◽  
P.G.W. Jones

1994 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Veenstra ◽  
P. J. G. M. Rietra ◽  
J. M. Coster ◽  
E. Slaats ◽  
S. Dirks-Go

SUMMARYThe seasonal variation in the occurrence ofV. vulnificusin relation to water temperature and salinity was studied along the Dutch coast. In two consecutive yearsV. vulnificusstrains could be isolated in August when the water temperature was highest. The indole-positive strains isolated from North Sea water samples were identical to most strains isolated from human disease and from the environment. However, strains isolated from four of five patients living in countries around the North Sea were different from the North Sea isolates in that they were indole-negative and have a lower NaCl tolerance.


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