What did the ecosystems of the North Sea and Baltic Sea look like over 100 years ago? To get to the bottom of this question, the Ecologic Institute project team visited the Museum of Natural History in Berlin in February 2026 as part of the project “The German North Sea and Baltic Sea over 100 Years Ago,” funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Among historical specimens, handwritten inventory books, and scientific collections, new perspectives on the marine past opened up – and surprising insights for today's marine conservation.

Searching for hints in the collection of the Berlin Natural History Museum

As part of the project “The German North Sea and Baltic Sea over 100 Years Ago” Dr. Grit Martinez, Gregory Fuchs, Teresa Spantzel, Dr. Nico Stelljes, and Fabian Haase from the Ecologic Institute are working together with scientists Dr. Hartwig Schulz and Florian Hoffmann on a scientifically sound historical baseline of German marine ecosystems. The aim is to reconstruct past distribution patterns, abundances, and ecological roles of key species as a reference for today's conservation and restoration measures.

Research on Historical Collection Specimens

A central component of this work is the examination of natural history collections. In February 2026, the team travelled to Berlin to visit the Museum of Natural History. Together with marine biologist and marine mammal expert Dr. Carl Christian Kinze from the University of Copenhagen, the team gained access to selected collection objects of seabirds, fish, benthic organisms, and marine mammals.

Collections as a Basis for Ecological Reference Data

The historical specimens provide valuable information about the former distribution areas and population sizes of key species in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Especially in times of profound ecological change, such reference data helps to better understand the extent of long-term shifts. In exchange with the teams of the individual species groups, the project team gained important insights into collection priorities, recording methods, and storage systems. Discussions focused in particular on the significance of individual objects for ecological issues, possibilities for comparison with other natural history collections, the benefits and limitations of existing digital databases, and prospects for future synergies between collections and research projects. It became clear that collections are much more than archives of past biodiversity – they are active research infrastructures with great potential for interdisciplinary collaboration.

A Rare Specimen of Particular Scientific Significance

A special moment during the examination was the appraisal of a rare specimen of a marine mammal with its calf from the southern Baltic Sea, which Dr. Carl Christian Kinze was able to date with certainty. This chronological classification gives the object extraordinary significance – not only as scientific evidence, but also as a testimony to historical population structures in the region.