Vedenin, Andrey; Kröncke, Ingrid; Weiß, Tim; Nolte, Gabriel; Keller, Mareike; Beck, Aaron; Esposito, Mario; Greinert, Jens (2025): Epifauna communities on the sea-dumped munitions in the Lübeck Bay (Baltic Sea) observed with the ROV during R/V Alkor expedition AL622 in October 2024 [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.984408
Always quote citation above when using data! You can download the citation in several formats below.
Published: 2025-09-02 • DOI registered: 2025-10-01
Abstract:
The German waters contain around 1.6 millions of tons of munition, mostly dumped after the world wars. Within Lübeck Bay (Baltic Sea) the majority of the munition is concentrated in the officially designated dumpsites (Munition Cadaster "AmuCad", EGEOS GmbH, www.amucad.org ). However, many individual items or piles are found outside of these areas. Most of the munition contain conventional explosives, primarily 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), which is toxic and is known to cause cancer in various organisms in water solutions with concentration > 1 mg/l (Lotufo et l., 2017; Beck et al., 2018). The structure and composition of epifauna was investigated on the dumped munition in the previously unknown site using a remotely operated vehicle (BlueRobotics, model BlueROV2) during cruise AL622 with RV 'Alkor' on 19. October 2024. Nine individual munition objects and the surrounding sediment were observed in the central-northern Lübeck Bay at depth of 19-21 m at the area of ~500 m². Two videos have been made: the one of all objects filmed with the in-built camera; the second of six objects filmed with the additional GoPro3 camera, mounted on the ROV. Objects were identified as warheads from the Fieseler Fi 103 (known as V1) packed for transporting in additional metal carcass. The warheads are on a different stage of degradation. Their metal parts are covered with dense epifauna communities and bare explosives is mostly free from fouling.
Supplement to:
Vedenin, Andrey; Kröncke, Ingrid; Weiß, Tim; Nolte, Gabriel; Keller, Mareike; Beck, Aaron; Esposito, Mario; Greinert, Jens (2025): Sea-dumped munitions in the Baltic Sea support high epifauna abundance and diversity. Communications Earth & Environment, 6, 749, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02593-7
References:
Beck, Aaron; Gledhill, Martha; Schlosser, Christian; Stamer, Beate; Böttcher, Claus; Sternheim, Jens; Greinert, Jens; Achterberg, Eric Pieter (2018): Spread, Behavior, and Ecosystem Consequences of Conventional Munitions Compounds in Coastal Marine Waters. Frontiers in Marine Science, 5, 141, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00141
Lotufo, Guilherme R; Chappell, Mark A; Price, Cynthia L; Ballentine, Mark L; Fuentes, Ashley A; Bridges, Todd S; George, Robert D; Glisch, Eric J; Carton, Geoffrey (2017): Review and synthesis of evidence regarding environmental risks posed by munitions constituents (MC) in aquatic systems. US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Laboratory, pp. 254
Project(s):
Funding:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), grant/award no. 03F0912A: DAM sustainMare - CONMAR, GEOMAR
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), grant/award no. 03F0912E: DAM sustainMare - CONMAR, Senckenberg
Coverage:
Latitude: 54.080000 * Longitude: 10.900000
Date/Time Start: 2024-10-19T16:28:07 * Date/Time End: 2024-10-19T17:06:01
Minimum Elevation: -21.0 m * Maximum Elevation: -21.0 m
Event(s):
AL622_162-1 * Latitude Start: 54.080000 * Longitude Start: 10.900000 * Latitude End: 54.080000 * Longitude End: 10.900000 * Date/Time Start: 2024-10-19T16:28:07 * Date/Time End: 2024-10-19T17:06:01 * Elevation Start: -21.0 m * Elevation End: -21.0 m * Campaign: AL622 (CONMAR, POST-Clear) * Basis: Alkor (1990) * Method/Device: Remote operated vehicle (ROV) * Comment: Coordinates were rounded to two decimal places
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | File content | Content | Vedenin, Andrey | |||
| 2 | Binary Object | Binary | Vedenin, Andrey | |||
| 3 | Binary Object (File Size) | Binary (Size) | Bytes | Vedenin, Andrey | ||
| 4 | Binary Object (Media Type) | Binary (Type) | Vedenin, Andrey | |||
| 5 | Binary Object (MD5 Hash) | Binary (Hash) | Vedenin, Andrey |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0)
Status:
Curation Level: Basic curation (CurationLevelB)
Size:
4 data points