Water depth measurements

were selleck compound carried out with a Reson SeaBat 8101 multibeam echosounder operating at 240 kHz frequency. The bathymetric data obtained were corrected for actual sea level recorded on the Wladyslawowo gauge, and the velocity of sound in water was measured with a Reson Sound Velocity Probe 15. The volume of sediment was obtained by comparing the results of bathymetric measurements made before and after exploitation. The calculations were performed using a Spatial Analyst extension of the ESRI ArcGIS software. Sonar profiling was carried out with a dual frequency 100/400 kHz EdgeTech 4200 side-scan sonar with a range of 50 m for each receiving channel. Full Spectrum CHIRP technology was used, which ensures better imaging resolution than in standard sonar systems. For seismoacoustic measurements

an Oretech 3010S sediment profiler was used (frequency 5 kHz, snap time 50 ms, timing 10 ping sec−1). Geophysical records were processed with MDPS MERIDATA software with sound velocity of 1.45 m ms−1 in water and 1.6 m ms−1 in sediment. Vibro- corer Etoposide in vivo data were inserted into the interpretation package for correlation with geophysical data. Cores were taken with a VKG-4 vibro-corer with a coring tube with a length of 3 m and an internal diameter of 91 mm. The locations of the coring points (COST-1 to 6, Figure 2a, see p. 864) were selected after previous analysis of the seismoacoustic profiles. The cores were taken to the laboratory, where a detailed macroscopic description was carried out and samples for laboratory investigations

were taken – from each layer, in accordance with macroscopically visible differences in grain size distribution. During the voyage in April 2010, sediment samples were taken with a box-corer with sampler 50 cm in length and 30 cm in diameter (BX-1 to 8; see Figure 2a for the locations). Samples for grain size analysis were taken from each layer macroscopi-cally visible in the cores. Sieving was used for grain size analysis. The grain size fraction content was defined in 1ϕ unit intervals using sieves of mesh sizes 32.0, 16.0, 8.0, 4.0, 2.0, 1.0, Reverse transcriptase 0.5, 0.25, 0.125 and 0.063 mm for cores COST-1 to 7 and box-cores BX-1 to 8. All together 120 grain size analyses of sand from the exploited layer and from the bottom of the post-dredging pits were performed. Core COST-8 was not analysed for granulometry. Sixteen pollen analyses were carried out on samples of muddy-sand deposits occurring below the marine sand at sites COST-1, 2, 6 and 8. Samples for microscopic examination were prepared using the standard method (Fsgri & Iversen 1975, Berglund 1979). Results were presented in the form of histograms obtained with POLPAL software. The percentage of each taxon in the pollen spectra was calculated in relation to the sum of trees, bushes and herbaceous plants (AP+NAP).