Spotlight

The amphipod species Ampithoe valida is native to the United States, but was detected in the Baltic Sea during the IOW’s coastal monitoring in 2025.

10.03.2026 New Approaches to Benthos Monitoring in the Baltic Sea:
Project BenthQual kicks off

On March 10, 2026, the IOW project BenthQual started its active research phase with the first sampling. Its goal is to genetically catalogue all known macrozoobenthic organisms of the Baltic Sea and to advance molecular biological monitoring methods for this animal group. The project, which officially started on December 1, 2025, is funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and will run until the end of November 2030.