Period: January 2021 till April 2025
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| Institutes (4) | Top | - Universiteit Gent; Faculteit Wetenschappen; Vakgroep Biologie; Onderzoeksgroep Mariene Biologie (MARBIOL), more, organiser
- Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen (IRScNB/KBIN), more, partner
- Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee (NIOZ), more, partner
- University of Twente, more, partner
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| Abstract | OUTFLOW will investigate how the presence of offshore wind farms affects the spatial redistribution of organic matter through the presence of fouling fauna. This fauna filters organic matter from the water column and repacks it as faecal pellets that are deposited on the sea floor. OUTFLOW will develop tracers for these pellets and use the tracer to track the fate of deposited pellets in the benthic food web, mineralization and burial processes. Upscaling towards the scale of wind farms, and multiple wind farms in the North Sea will be done through ecological and oceanographic modeling.
FOOTPRINT
Within the Footprint project, the interactions between offshore wind turbines and the sandwaves on which they are built are being studied. Turbines affect the surrounding hydrography, and the topography of the sediment. Subsequently, these changes may affect the biogeochemistry of the seafloor. In turn, migrating bedforms may endanger offshore structures (e.g. OWFs and cables). Within this project, new hydrodynamic and biological models will be developed to estimate the effects of offshore windfarms on permeable sediments in the Southern North Sea. |
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