The Marker Wadden is an artificial

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

under development in the Markermeer, a lake in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The first island was inaugurated on 24 September 2016.Een nieuw stukje Nederland: de Marker Wadden zijn open
/ref> It is a nature reserve alternative to the much bigger proposed Markerwaard polder that was begun in 1941, but paused following World War II and finally canceled in 2003.

Project

The project was proposed in 2012 by the Vereniging Natuurmonumenten. The Dutch government, BirdLife Netherlands, ANWB, and VNO-NCW are partners in its development. Work on the first phase, which is mainly focused on the construction of the first island, started in April 2016, with Boskalis Westminster being awarded the contract. The main aims of the project are to create breeding grounds, islands, and coast line as well as to improve the water ecology of the Markermeer. The project creates a

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

comparable with the

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( ; ; or ; ; ; ) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern continental Europe and the range of low-lying Frisian Islands, forming a shallow body of water with tida ...

—hence the name of the project—yet without

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

s. This is because the Markermeer is not connected to the

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

and is in a

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salt (chemistry), salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include ...

environment. The nature reserve is accessible to tourists. There is a ferry service from the city of Lelystad, itself a city built on reclaimed IJsselmeer land. On 11 May 2016, the first new island was completed, Natuurmonumenten called this a "milestone". In March 2017, it was announced that four other islands should be completed before 2020.

Flora and fauna

The islands have been colonized by large numbers of breeding birds. A colony of 200 breeding pairs of pied avocet has made the islands their home, as has a large colony of common tern. Little terns also breed on the islands. Northern shoveler, gadwall, garganey, Mediterranean gull,

spoonbill Spoonbills are a genus, ''Platalea'', of large, long-legged wading birds. The spoonbills have a global distribution, being found on every continent except Antarctica. The genus name ''Platalea'' derives from Ancient Greek and means "broad", refe ...

, long-tailed duck and numerous other species of birds have been seen on and around the islands.

Participants

Contributions: Dutch government .

Controversy

The ecologist claimed he first had the idea in 1996 and talks about "

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

Events

In March 2024 Marker Wadden was the focus of a 50-strong scientific ecological conference investigating aspects of water ecology and coastal science organised by th
Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research

References

{{reflist

External links

Marker Wadden
Natuurmonumenten Artificial islands of the Netherlands Lakes of the Netherlands Protected areas of the Netherlands Landforms of Flevoland Lelystad