«Breaking News» Artificial islands built in the Netherlands will bring wildlife freshwater lake

A group of five islands is being developed on the Markermeer lake in the Netherlands to bring nature back to the area after it became devoid of wildlife.

A nature organisation will use an innovative technique of forming the small islands with silt, a material halfway between clay and sand.

The 270-square-mile (700km²) Markermeer is one of Europe's largest freshwater lakes, used as a reservoir and a buffer against floodwater and droughts.

Over the last few decades, sediment used to create a dyke separating the Markermeer from a neighbouring body of water sunk to the bottom of the lake.

This filled the water with sediment and made the water cloudy and uninhabitable for aquatic life, bird populations, plants and molluscs. 

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A group of five islands will be developed on the Markermeer lake in the Netherlands to bring nature back to the area after it became devoid of wildlife. A nature organisation will use an innovative technique of forming the small islands with silt, which is a mix of clay and sand

HOW IS THE LAKE HELPING TO RE-INTRODUCE PLANTS AND ANIMALS?

The five small islands were built in two and a half years and have already served as a resting place for 30,000 swallows this year.

In the water, there is home for a huge number of plankton that guarantees a large amount of food for the birds. 

Three wooden bird observatories, a house for the island's guardian, twelve kilometres of footbridges and unpaved roads have also been built on the main island, which is open to the public. 

Park ranger Andre Donker says the engineering project will be one of the largest re-wilding operations in Europe. 

It is being initiated by a non-governmental Dutch organisation called Natuurmonumenten, whose works focuses on the preservation of nature. 

The artificial islands will cost £54 million (€60 million), most of which has been donated by the public. 

The main island in the group of five now has wooden bird observatories, a house for the island's guardian, footbridges unpaved roads and growing vegetation.

It is open to the general public but the four others are exclusively reserved for wildlife and plants.

Project Head Jeroen van der Klooster said building an island with sand is a common technique used all over the world, but the use of silt in this project is unique. 

The team will dig a 4,000 foot (1,200 metre) corridor on the main island to allow the silt - led by strong ocean currents - to form marshy areas, fertile soil and reservoirs where migratory birds can eat. 

The 270-square-mile (700-square-mile-km) Markermeer lake is one of Europe's largest freshwater lakes, used as a freshwater reservoir and a buffer against floodwaters and drought

Over the last few decades, sediment used to create a dyke separating the Markermeer from a neighbouring body of water sunk to the bottom of the lake. This turned the water cloudy and uninhabitable for aquatic life, bird populations, plants and molluscs

The plan is among many being worked on by the Netherlands, which is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. 

'Once upon a time it was teeming with fish here,' Andre Donker, the island's ranger said.  

He added that the area had been teeming with fish until the dyke created to separate Markermeer from neighbouring body of water, the Ijsselmeer, washed away.

He said that the newly grown reeds have been the first time he has been able to see signs of increasing biodiversity. 

The artificial islands will cost £54 million (60 million euro), most of which has been donated by the public. The main island now has wooden bird observatories, a house for the island's guardian, footbridges and unpaved roads

It is open to the general public but the four others are exclusively reserved for wildlife and plants. Project Head Jeroen van der Klooster said building an island with sand is a common technique used all over the world, but the use of silt in this project is unique

The lake was once part of the Zuiderzee, completed in 1932, which closed off a huge expanse of water to keep out the North Sea and combat flooding.

Vital in a country where 26 per cent of the land is below sea level, the scheme created an inland lake and polders, land reclaimed from the sea.

But the environment and its wildlife suffered as a result. 

Mr Donker says that after the cloudy water began to negatively impact on fish and bird populations they 'had to intervene'.   

The five islands were built in two and a half years and have already serve as a resting place for 30,000 swallows this year.  

Experts recently counted 127 kinds of plants, most of which have been brought in by windborne seeds.

In the water there is an 'explosion' of plankton that 'guarantees a large amount of food for the birds', says Mr Donker.  

HOW MUCH WILL SEA LEVELS RISE IN THE NEXT FEW CENTURIES?

Global sea levels could rise as much as 1.2 metres (4 feet) by 2300 even if we meet the 2015 Paris climate goals, scientists have warned.

The long-term change will be driven by a thaw of ice from Greenland to Antarctica that is set to re-draw global coastlines.

Sea level rise threatens cities from Shanghai to London, to low-lying swathes of Florida or Bangladesh, and to entire nations such as the Maldives.

It is vital that we curb emissions as soon as possible to avoid an even greater rise, a German-led team of researchers said in a new report.

By 2300, the report projected that sea levels would gain by 0.7-1.2 metres, even if almost 200 nations fully meet goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Targets set by the accords include cutting greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in the second half of this century.

Ocean levels will rise inexorably because heat-trapping industrial gases already emitted will linger in the atmosphere, melting more ice, it said.

In addition, water naturally expands as it warms above four degrees Celsius (39.2°F).

The report also found that every five years of delay beyond 2020 in peaking global emissions would mean an extra 20 centimetres (8 inches) of sea level rise by 2300.

'Sea level is often communicated as a really slow process that you can't do much about ... but the next 30 years really matter,' lead author Dr Matthias Mengel, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, in Potsdam, Germany, told Reuters.

None of the nearly 200 governments to sign the Paris Accords are on track to meet its pledges.

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/12/17/artificial-islands-built-in-the-netherlands-will-bring-wildlife-freshwater-lake/
Main photo article A group of five islands is being developed on the Markermeer lake in the Netherlands to bring nature back to the area after it became devoid of wildlife.
A nature organisation will use an innovative technique of forming the small islands with silt, a material halfway between clay and sand.
The...

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