For the past 200 years, estuarine environments experienced intense and rapid environmental degradations due to human interventions. In addition, Global Changes are modifying the estuarine physiography, leading to a re-structuration of marginal marine benthic communities. The aim of this study is to document, the modern assemblage composition and the species-environment relations of benthic foraminifera upstream the Elbe Estuary (southern North Sea) and to observe what has changed since the first survey in 1981. For this purpose, a surface sampling was carried out from 22 stations along the transitional area of the Elbe Estuary. Living (rose-Bengal stained) and dead foraminiferal assemblages were analysed as well as hydrological and sedimentological parameters (such as salinity, pH, grain-size, and organic matter). Living faunas are characterized by very low densities and largely dominated by Ammonia species. Dead assemblages are more diverse and dominated by Ammonia aomoriensis, Haynesina germanica, and Cribroelphidium selseyense. Salinity and grain-size seem to be the major factors influencing foraminiferal distributions in the transitional area. Under the ongoing climate changes, future strategies will be taken to foster the application of benthic foraminifera as biomonitoring tool in the Elbe Estuary, via this baseline investigation.

在过去的200年中，由于人工干预，河口环境经历了剧烈而迅速的环境退化。此外，全球变化正在改变河口生理，导致边缘海洋底栖生物群落的重组。这项研究的目的是记录易北河口（北海南部）上游底栖有孔虫的现代组合组成和物种与环境的关系，并观察自1981年首次调查以来发生的变化。为此，表面沿易北河河口过渡区的22个站点进行了采样。分析了活的（玫瑰花孟加拉染色的）和死有孔虫的组合以及水文和沉积学参数（例如盐度，pH，粒度和有机质）。氨物种。死组合更为多样，并以青森氨水，德国海耶斯纳菌和塞尔布罗菲虫为主导。盐度和粒度似乎是影响过渡区有孔虫分布的主要因素。在持续的气候变化下，将通过该基线调查采取未来策略，以促进底栖有孔虫在易北河口中作为生物监测工具的应用。