A sketchy outline of the fate of organic matter in the Dutch Wadden Sea

Conclusion In ecosystems like the Dutch Wadden Sea a carbon budget can be made roughly However, there are in space as well as in time a lot of gaps in the observations. Especially from subtidal sediments of inlets and gullies are no observations available. Also the quantification of the different functional groups of the anaerobically respiring organisms (manganese reducers, denitrifiers, iron reducers, methane formers) in the decomposition is absent. And what is the role and quantitative importance of fermenting organisms? Finally, the quantification of the use of the reduced end products of anaerobic respiring organisms is unknown.