The Research- and Technology Centre Westcoast (FTZ) at Büsum is a branch
of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, which unites several disciplines
of coastal North Sea research. Its foundation in 1988 made possible a considerable
expansion of interdisciplinary, applied and regionally oriented research on
the Wadden Sea and the bordering coastline. With about 40 employees the centre
focuses on 7 main scientific fields:
- Coastal Ecology/Environmental Research and Technology
- Applied Physics/Marine Technology
- Coastal Geology/Coastal Engineering
- Coastal Geography
- Coastal Archaeology/Landscape History and Development
- Soil Ecology
- Ecology of Birds and Mammals
Applied projects provide a basis for decisions regarding the sustainable management
of the coastal region and instigate the developments of locally relevant, innovative
technologies. Besides international research projects, basic research in ecology
and the historical development of the coastal realm represent an important backbone
of the institute. To accomplish its tasks, the institute has two buildings at
its disposal with a total of 24 laboratory units, 2 technology hangars with
a purpose-built flume, and isotope laboratory and a dissection room.
A small but technologically sophisticated research vessel with a capacity
to lodge up to 6 scientists is available to explore shallow coastal waters.
An essential basis for the scientific activities at the Centre is its equipment
with large devices, such as a flow cytometer and a pontoon with telemetric data
transmission.
The interdisziplinary expertise in the centre allows us to address scientific
problems in a cooperative manner across varius working groups. Recent and future
examples for such multidisciplinary cooperation between these working groups
are:
-
the "Blue Box Project", a contribution to the GOOS program (Global
Ocean Observing System), aims at the developement of an automatic multiparameter
measuring system for ferries and other ships of opportunity
-
the future project "Factors Controlling Porpoise Habitat", which
analyses the causes, consequences and protection strategies for locally
enhanced abundances of nrbour porpoises along the German North Sea Coast
-
the Interreg-II-Project "LANCEWAD" (Landscape and Cultural Heritage
of the Wadden Sea) deals with an inventury of the landscape characteristics
and cultural heritage of the Wadden Sea region with the aim of evaluating
the qualities of the landscape at the heritage in order to develope proposals
for their sustainable management
-
the "Physiostat Project", which focuses on the developement of a
laboratory-scale bioreactor with a physiological control unit for the production
of biosubstances from marine phototrophic microorganisms.
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