The research project "Official survey of the current state as well as of the development of a comprehensive individual preservation strategy for the shallow water pools of the Seewinkel" was approved.

In the area east of Lake Neusiedl hikers can only find barely 30 of the about 130 shallow saline water pools today that were once depicted on the old maps of the Seewinkel. And, what is even worse, the state of these remaining few soda pools is critical, which comparison with old pictures clearly demonstrates. Without our rapid help they will be lost as well.

A team of vegetation ecologists, microbiologists as well as chemical eyperts for water and soil has come together for the purpose of finding measures to guarantee preservation of the still remaining water pools and detect those pools that have already dissappeared for which the attempt of successful regeneration seems realistic.

There is, however, no universal remedy – the shallow water pools of the Seewinkel are much too individual: soda pools, sulphate pools, chloride pools, pools drying up in summer, pools that are aquiferous all the year, pools with ground water contribution, pools that are exclusively fed by precipitation, in short, each of the shallow water pools of the Seewinkel has got its very specific indicvidual characteristics. What they all have in common, though, is their richhness in salts. Purpose of the project is to find out for each individual pool exactly those particular conditions that guarantee the salt content necessary for survival as well as providing a new start for those water pools that have disappeared.

Text: Dr. Rudolf Krachler

Photos: Heinz Löffler (Gansllacke 1982) / Dr. Regina Krachler (Gansllacke 2008)