The first step in the formation of dunes and thus an island is the so-called primary dunes, known as "Wittbülten" in the local dialect. The national park house of the same name on Spiekeroog, which has been operating a research centre in co-operation with the university since 2011, is now celebrating its tenth anniversary.
220,000 visitors in ten years and a wide range of research activities - the environmental centre at Spiekeroog's Hermann Lietz School can look back on a success story. "The ensemble of school facility, national park house and research institution is unique," praised Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Stefan Wenzel at the ceremony at the weekend. "Standards are being set here," said Wenzel with regard to the joint commitment of the school, the National Park House and the University of Oldenburg.
University President Prof. Dr Dr Hans Michael Piper pointed out the "unique working conditions" offered by the Wittbülten research centre with its laboratories and the integration with environmental education. In addition to the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), which is in charge of the centre, didactics specialists at the university also benefit from this.
Under the motto "Marine research for all", researchers from the ICBM and other participating universities in Augsburg and Göttingen presented their projects based on Spiekeroog in lectures and posters. In addition to soil science and Spiekeroog's freshwater resources, the topics also included the artificial islands that an Oldenburg research group has created in the mudflats for interdisciplinary biodiversity research.
