Bodden
Encyclopedia
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, primarily in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern around the island of Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
. They have a distinctive geological origin and are enclosed by peninsulae, spits
Spit (landform)
A spit or sandspit is a deposition landform found off coasts. At one end, spits connect to land, and extend into the sea. A spit is a type of bar or beach that develops where a re-entrant occurs, such as at cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift...
and islands, leaving only narrow connections to adjacent bodden or the open sea. Freshwater inflow from the mainland and saltwater inflow from the open sea, which depends on wind direction and force as well as the proximity of the bodden to the sea, result in fluctuating salt gradients and distinctive ecosystems.
During the Littorina Sea
Littorina Sea
Littorina Sea is a geological brackish-water stage of the Baltic Sea, which existed around 7500–4000 BP and followed the Mastogloia Sea, transitional stage of the Ancylus Lake...
transgression an island archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
was formed by the carving of narrow glacial basins and channels resulting from meltwater
Meltwater
Meltwater is the water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice and ice shelfs over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing...
. Bodden were formed in a comparatively short period between spits and offshore sandbars. These shallow glacial scoops were then subjected to extensive sedimentation during the Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
, resulting in lakes with depths of no more than 4-6 metres. Thermal and saline stratification is extremely unstable under these conditions, and bodden have the typical dynamics of small bodies of water with a sea connection, which is a rapid filling and draining due to tidal and wind action, and inflow of fresh water. The frequent movement of water can lead to a scouring effect, but can also with heavy pollution show a tendency toward eutrophication
Eutrophication
Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...
. Due to erosion of cliffs and sedimentary deposition, the shape of the bodden coasts remains unstable. Sudden changes have been caused by stormfloods, which repeatedly closed connections to the sea or opened new ones in the past.
While bodden-type bays can be found in Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, the typical bodden are located off the Pomeranian mainland between the mouth of the Recknitz
Recknitz
The Recknitz is a river in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northeastern Germany. The Recknitz's glacial valley stretches as far south as the heights at Glasewitz near Güstrow. The river has no definite source, but rather builds up from streams and drainage ditches...
river and the island of Usedom
Usedom
Usedom is a Baltic Sea island on the border between Germany and Poland. It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the River Oder in Pomerania...
. Several adjacent bodden between the Fischland-Darß-Zingst
Fischland-Darß-Zingst
Fischland-Darß-Zingst is a peninsula on the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. Its full length is 45 km. The three parts of the peninsula, from west to east, are Fischland, Darß and Zingst....
peninsula, Hiddensee
Hiddensee
Hiddensee is a carfree island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Rügen on the German coast.The island, located 54°33' north longitude 13°07' east, has about 1,300 inhabitants. It was a popular vacation destination for East German tourists during German Democratic Republic times and continues to...
, the northern and western peninsulae of Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
and the Pomeranian mainland are grouped as Bodden chains (Boddenketten):
- Darß-Zingst bodden chain (Darß-Zingster Boddenkette), consisting of (from west to east)
- Saaler Bodden with Ribnitzer See and Permin, connected by Koppelstrom to
- Bodstedter Bodden with Redensee and Prerower Strom, connected by Meiningen to
- Barther Bodden with Zingster Strom
- Grabow
- West Rügen bodden chain (Westrügensche Boddenkette or Rügensche Außenboddenkette), consisting of (from south to north)
- Kubitzer Bodden with Prohner Wiek and Gellenstrom
- Schaproder Bodden with Udarser Wiek and Koselower See
- Vitter Bodden, connected to the Baltic Sea by Libben
- North Rügen bodden chain (Nordrügensche Boddenkette), consisting of (from west to east)
- Wieker Bodden, connected by Rassower Strom to Schaproder Bodden and
- Breetzer Bodden with Neuendorfer Wiek,
- Breeger Bodden
- Lebbiner Bodden with Tetzitzer See
- Großer Jasmunder Bodden with Mittelsee and Spykerscher See, connected by a narrow ditch to
- Kleiner Jasmunder Bodden
Another bodden is the Bay of Greifswald
Bay of Greifswald
The Bay of Greifswald is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the shores of Germany in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. With an area of 514 km², it is the largest Bodden of the German Baltic coast....
(Greifswalder Bodden), the northern parts of which constitute the Rügischer Bodden with Schoritzer Wiek, Wreechensee, Having
Having
Having is the third album by American rock band Trespassers William. It was released on 28 February 2006 on Nettwerk Records.- Track listing :# "Safe, Sound"# "What of Me"# "Weakening"# "Eyes Like Bottles"# "I Don't Mind"# "Ledge"# "And We Lean In"...
with Neuensiener See and Selliner See
Selliner See (Rügen)
Selliner See is a lake in the Vorpommern-Rügen district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. At an elevation of 0 m, its surface area is 1.38 km²....
, and Hagensche Wiek. To the south, the Bay of Greifswald comprises Gristower Inwiek, Kooser See and Dänische Wieck (Danish Bay).
The Bay of Greifswald is connected to the West Rügen bodden chain by the Strelasund
Strelasund
The Strelasund is a sound of the Baltic Sea which separates Rügen from the German mainland. It is crossed by a road and rail bridge called the Rügendamm in Stralsund. It runs in a roughly northwest-to-southeast direction from a small shallow bay just north of Stralsund called the Kubitzer Bodden...
, a bodden-type strait with Glewitzer Wiek, Puddeminer Wiek and Deviner See; it is further connected to the Oder Lagoon by the Peenestrom
Peenestrom
The Peenestrom is a strait or river in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is 20 Kilometers long and is the westernmost connection of the Szczecin Lagoon with the Baltic Sea. It is therefore also one of the three distributaries of the Oder....
, another bodden-type strait with Spandowerhagener Wiek, Krösliner See, Hohendorfer See, Krumminer Wiek and Achterwasser
Achterwasser
The Achterwasser is a lagoon forming a bay on the Peenestrom river, which flows into the Baltic Sea, and like that estuary is an inland coastal waterbody. This lagoon extends so far into the island of Usedom, that it is only separated from the Baltic Sea by a narrow barrier spit between Ückeritz...
.
The bodden are important sanctuaries for many species of birds and are especially important resting places for migratory birds like cranes and geese. This was the reason for the establishment of the Vorpommern Lagoon Area National Park (Nationalpark Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft), comprising most of the bodden between Darß
Darß
The Darß is the middle part of the peninsula of Fischland-Darß-Zingst on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The peninsula's name comes from the names of the three regions making up the peninsula. There is a large forest in the Darß...
and Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
.
Traditionally bodden have been good fishing areas, rich in mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
community sites, in particular the Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
n bodden of Rügen
Rügen
Rügen is Germany's largest island. Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.- Geography :Rügen is located off the north-eastern coast of Germany in the Baltic Sea...
, Greifswald
Greifswald
Greifswald , officially, the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald is a town in northeastern Germany. It is situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, at an equal distance of about from Germany's two largest cities, Berlin and Hamburg. The town borders the Baltic Sea, and is crossed...
and Peenestrom
Peenestrom
The Peenestrom is a strait or river in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is 20 Kilometers long and is the westernmost connection of the Szczecin Lagoon with the Baltic Sea. It is therefore also one of the three distributaries of the Oder....
. From these waters anglers regularly haul 10–15 kg Northern pike
Northern Pike
The northern pike , is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox...
.