After loads of preparation, we could finally install another floating island in a public recreational park in Rostock, Germany, just in time for the official summer start. The island location in the IGA Park is in a sheltered bay off the Warnow estuary with salinities around 8.5 psu and a water depth of up to 1.5 m.
At this site, frequent visitors can appreciate the beauty of a floating wetland that adds dashes of colour into the monotonous reed bed with the purple Lythrum salicaria or the yellow Iris pseudacorus. Our information board will offer tourists and residents a chance to learn more about the many advantages of floating wetlands. We will monitor how the macrophytes cope with these different environmental conditions (e.g. higher salinity) and make comparisons to the other study sites.