THE ZWIN LAGOON, How management reverberates through the trophic levels.

Student: 
Mathieu Le Gurun

The Zwin Lagoon, a salt marsh located on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands, is an important area for bird biodiversity. Sedimentation has led to the creation of land bridges to islands that were previously isolated from predators. One of the conservation measures implemented was the widening and deepening of the main channel. This thesis aims to evaluate the impact of this action on sediment, macrofauna, and nekton in two creeks by comparing levels before and after the intervention. Field observations in Creek 1 indicated reduced inundation times. Sampling revealed that mud content and total organic matter increased, while macrofauna abundance and species richness also showed an increase. However, the nekton results were inconclusive due to limited sampling. In contrast, Creek 4 did not exhibit significant changes over the sampling period. These changes in Creek 1 are expected to result from increased sediment deposition during slack tide, which deposits finer sediment. The fine particles better maintain organic matter in the soil, providing a food source for the macrofauna, thereby leading to their increase. Nekton which feed on these species should visit the creek more often. However, due to the number of replicates available, no trend could be established.

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