BioRegio Concept Nordwest Niedersachsen: The Waddensea, a Unique Source of Marine Organism for Production of Natural Products
Marinus MEINERS*a, Helmut RODIECK, and Horst SEELKOPFb
a BioRegio Nordwest Niedersachsen, Fachhochschule Ostfriesland, Constantiaplatz 4, 26723 Emden, Germany
b BIOTECHMAR, Bahhofstrasse 11, 26419 Schortens, Germany
In the BioRegio Contest in Germany Marine Biotechnology received much interest in the scientific community and the public. The Federal Ministry of Science and Research (bmb+f) announced a new program on Marine Natural Product Research in Germany, mainly focussig on the exploration of organism of the Polar Sea, the deepsea generally, the North Sea and the waddensea. The Ministry of Science and Culture of the State Lower Saxony announced a new program on research in Marine Biotechnology, mainly focussing on the waddensea and the coastal area Ostfriesland of Lower Saxony.
The waddensea is a unique ecological niche based on the load of the rivers into the North Sea, resulting in a specific sedimentation and mud. Together with the tidal changes and extreme changes in the conditions this has lead to a rich diversity of the biology. Partly this area is therefore under ecological protection by the declaration of a National Parc. Of course this is a potential source to isolate special organism to be cultured in bioreactors with the hope to find special useful and economic products. The new concept of Marine Biotechnology in Germany will be described, the biodiversity of the waddensea will be described and first results will be presented. International cooperations will be offered and looked for.
