The exhibition

Crunching ground at the edge of the sea - all sand or mudflats? The special exhibition "Experiencing Mudflats - Understanding Mudflat Soils" digs deep and uncovers a diverse, sensitive ecosystem. It traces mudflats, fanning out landscapes, colors and shapes, and invites visitors to feel the sticky silt between their toes on hikes. From Dec. 12, 2019, to May 31, 2020, the exhibition can be experienced at the Museum of Nature Hamburg - Zoology. Together, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (BUE), the LIB and the Institute of Soil Science at the University of Hamburg have designed an exhibition, including excursions, that explores mudflat landscapes within Hamburg and on the North Sea, revealing an exciting world between the grains of sand.

A place of longing, a habitat and a nursery: The mudflats are an in-between realm - not always land, not always water, and yet a bit of both. It is a unique natural landscape, sometimes dangerous, in some places endangered and always in motion.

The exhibition shows the two experience areas "Experience mudflats" and "Understand mudflats".

Experience mudflats "adventure area"

• Soil, soil, soil
• What and where is mudflat anyway?
• Habitat saltwater mudflats
• Habitat freshwater mudflats
• Findings from the tidal flats

Experience area "Understanding tidal flats"

• Outlook: Tidelands will?
• Tidal flat profiles
• Understanding tidal flat soil
• Sands, silt and clay incl. samples, hourglass etc.
• Sand gap system, meiofauna
• Productive mudflats; neozoa; mussels, worms and tubes
• Migratory birds
• Mudflat bird specimens and model marine bristle worm
• Nature conservation and compensatory measures

Facts, facts, facts: In our special exhibition, guests of all ages become absorbent cotton experts. In advance, we have compiled some important information about the mudflats.

• 

  Tidal flats are areas that are sometimes flooded and sometimes dry out. The tides are responsible for this, i.e. the regular change of high and low tide.
• In the process, the water moves not only sand, but also fine mineral particles, organic material, mussel shells, algae remains or plankton. And because fresh oxygen can always reach the upper layer of the tidal flat bottom, one of the most extraordinary habitats in the world is created in a bottom that is simultaneously a land bottom and a seabed.
• Beneath the uppermost layers of the tidal flat, oxygen is absent and degradation processes produce hydrogen sulfide, which is responsible for the black color and odor of the tidal flat.
• Many mudflats have a high lime content due to crushed mussel shells.

• 

  Sand mudflats, mudflats, mixed mudflats: there are different types of mudflats. Because not all sand is the same. There is coarse, medium and fine sand. When the grains become so small that they can no longer be seen with the naked eye, they are called silt or clay.
• Worms, crabs, mussels: the tidal flat floor is the habitat and food base of many animals.
• The tidal flats in Hamburg are river tidal flats, while in the North Sea we are dealing with sea tidal flats and thus with completely different ecosystems.
• The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site consists of some 500 kilometers of coastline in three countries and nearly 4,600 square kilometers of tidal flats.