Kelheim (km 2404)

The river Danube near Kelheim
Photo: UPB-Projektgruppe Trier

The only sampling site in the German middle course of the river Danube. It forms a bridgehead over the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal to the river Rhine.

Kehlheim is the only sampling site in the sub-area Unterhalb Altmühlmündung (downstream of the mouth of the Altmühl river). It extends from the mouth of the Altmühl at Kehlheim (river kilometre 2411) to the barrage near Bad Abbach (river kilometre 2400) and includes the main stream, several oxbows and a harbour basin. This section of the Danube is a highly frequented shipping route. No surface discharges are present here.
Bream are caught in the main stream near the mouth of an oxbow whereas zebra mussels are exposed in the harbour basin.

The monitoring site Bad Abbach of the Bavarian Environment Agency (Bayerisches LfU) is located immediately downstream of the Environmental Specimen Bank's (ESB) sampling site. This allows the comparison of the ESB data with the physical and chemical water data of the federal state’s monitoring network.

Kehlheim is the central sampling site in the Danube. It represents the water status of the Danube at the south side of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. In this regard, Kehlheim is a bridgehead to the Rhine.

Specimen

Analytes

Sampling period

2002 - 2022