Counting on Nature
Work in progress
‘In the last two decades, people have started to look more closely at their environment, out of increasing concern about nature.'
No other country has collected more data per square kilometre on air, water and soil condition than The Netherlands. Developments in nature are widely monitored by professionals and volunteers, making use of hi-tech methods to down-to-earth counting, focusing on the vulnerability of our ecosystems, and therefore of our future.
Kekerdom, The Netherlands, 2019
Volunteers sniff heaps left by beavers as a scent signal. After the last beaver family in the Netherlands was exterminated in 1826, the animal was in 1988 re-introduced. These women store the air in their smell memory and use that imprint to distinguish species, such as otter, fox and nowadays also the wolf.
Eemnes, The Netherlands, 2019
Lapwing young gets a transmitter stuck for research. Farmland birds are among the most threatened bird species in Europe.
Tiel, The Netherlands 2019
Monitoring underwater sounds to get a better understanding of how fish communicate and on the effects of noise nuisance.
Tilburg, The Netherlands, 2019
Tree root scanner is used before the start of the refurbishment of a residential area to map out vulnerable roots.
Katwijk, The Netherlands, 2019
Installation for detecting glass eel at the seaside of the King Willem-Alexander Pumping Station. After their long journey from the Sargasso Sea they arrive at the Dutch coast, searching for an estuary. From an animal perspective, these types of Dutch waterworks form migration barriers. Fish passages are necessary to overcome this problem.
Nederhorst Den Bergh, The Netherlands, 2019
Installation for measuring dry nitrogen deposition, done by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). The deposition is determined on the bases of calculation models. Measuring is used to calibrate the models.
Welsum, The Netherlands, 2019
As an experiment, this tree was placed in a side arm of a river. A self-constructed vacuum cleaner is used to monitor species under water. Wood is important for the life cycle of fish. Everything grows on it and young fish can easily hide there.