Proceedings of the Fifth International Meiofauna Conference held in Ghent, Belgium, August 16-20, 1983.

This work presents results of the project Major Biological Processes in European Tidal Estuaries, funded by the Commission of the European Communities under its Marine Science and Technology Programme. This was one of the first projects in which a large number of European macrotidal estuaries, from the Elbe to the Tagus, were studied simultaneously and compared in a coherent way by application of a standardized methodology. It revealed that these estuaries have many species in common and that their ecology can be understood on the basis of a common concept. A major result of the comparison is...

Table 1. State variables modeled in MOSES. State variable Units Estuaries are characterized by a strong diversity in car bon sources. This is because of the existence of an 3 Fast-decay detritus g- intertidal habitat, the supply of nutrients and organic 3 Slow-decay detritus g- material from the river and from the sea and the input of 3 gCm- Freshwater diatoms matter from human origin. If turbidity remains limited, 3 Freshwater flagellates g- estuaries can also support a high primary production 3 Brackish and marine diatoms g- as nutrients are abundant. Nevertheless, estuaries are 3 Cm-...