The Wadden Sea National Parkfounded in 1986 and encompasses the East Frisian islands, tidal flats and between Seemarschen Dollard on the border with the Netherlands in the west and to the outside in Cuxhaven Elbe shipping channel east. The National Park is approximately 345 800 ha in size. [1] The National Park administration is located in Wilhelmshaven. Since June 2009 the National Park of Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park along with the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea and the Dutch Wadden Sea is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ecology

To be protected habitats of this park include the watt, sand banks, salt marshes, beaches, dunes and estuaries in the North Sea. Particular attention is this the typical for the Wadden Sea fauna and flora.

The coast of the North Sea is unusually flat. The seabed is partly from a few centimeters per kilometer. Twice a day the tide carries sand, clay and silt in the area of ​​the Wadden Sea. Dunes characterize the coastline, which builds the wind out of the fine grains of sand from the exposed watts.

The Wadden Sea is to the tropical rain forest ecosystem, the second most prolific - only that it exceeds the Wadden Sea in living biomass. The Wadden Sea-to-find life forms include diatoms, snails, worms, mussels and prawns. A typical inhabitant of sandy Watts Watts is the worm that lives in a U-shaped pipe under the surface watts.

Up to 4,000 animal and plant species are specialized in the unusual food-rich habitat of the Wadden Sea. For example, geese live fire from the tidal snails, which are found in hundreds of thousands on the mudflat surface. The 180,000 birds counted northwestern European Shelduck population also spends its moulting period between July and September in the Wadden Sea. Also, about 200,000 eider ducks spend their molting season, about 1,000 pairs of eiders use the mudflats of the North Sea as a breeding area. Most of them breed on the island Amrum.

At the same time, the Wadden Sea staging area for breeding birds Nordic countries, the nibble here, the fat reserves they need for successful breeding. How to find herself in the Wadden Sea about 10-12 million waders, geese, ducks and gulls.

On the sandbanks in the Wadden Sea seals are observed and are adjacent to the Wadden Sea salt marshes, sandy beaches and dunes. On the salt marshes that serve as the avocets and terns nesting area, blooms in summer, the beach and the beach thistle lilac. Typical plant of the dunes is the ordinary beach grass, which fastens with its extensive root system of the dunes.