Field Trips - SW Jutland
Jutland Wadden Sea, August 16-18
12-20 participants
Total price DKK 3,000
including transportation with coach, accommodation at Sandbjerg Estate (hotel-like with scenic surroundings, with single rooms) and DanHostel in Ribe
(top-end youth hostel with single rooms), all meals, including breakfast 17th and 18th, packet lunch with 1 juice/water, afternoon coffee 16th, 17th,
and 18th, and dinner buffet 16th and 17th including 1 beer/water or 1 glass of wine.
Tour guides: Benjamin Øllgaard and
Mats Gustafsson
Saturday August 16
09.00 Departure from Copenhagen
10.00 Allindelille Fredskov, a deciduous forest on lime-rich soil in central Zealand.
Allindelille Fredskov is a protected forest (no collecting, please) owned by the University of Copenhagen. It is a highly varied, mixed, and only
extensively exploited forest, harbouring a special and very rich flora due to limestone, exposed, or coming close to the soil surface. Here Fagus
sylvatica is stunted and somewhat chlorotic. There are several clearings which were originally grazed by cattle. These are particularly rich in species,
including several of the rarest orchid species in the country. In order to maintain the clearings open and exposed, they are managed by hay harvest.
Sinebjerg forest in the Horneland area, Southern Funen, a species rich, coppice forest with a long history of harvest of wood for fences.
The forest is privately owned, and known due to a large population of Tilia platyphyllos, supposedly one of the few native stands in the country.
The soils are rather rich and clayey and in addition to a long list of woody species, is very rich in herbaceous species, e.g. Listera ovata, Paris
quadrifolia, Campanula latifolia, C. trachelium, Hypericum hirsutum, H. tetrapterum, Equisetum telmateia.
Lunch break and afternoon coffee on Funen
15.00 Ferry, Bøjden - Fyns Hav
16.30 Arrival Sandbjerg Estate
The Sandbjerg Estate - Aarhus University Conference Centre he Sandbjerg Estate serves as the main conference centre for the University of Aarhus.
The estate is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty about 7 km northwest of Sønderborg in the southern part of Jutland. The facilities
of the conference centre are, however, also available to organisations which are not related to the university.
19.00 Dinner buffet at Sandbjerg Estate
Sunday August 17
09.00 Departure Sandbjerg
10.30 We arrive at the island of Rømø in the Jutland Wadden Sea, an area with extensive tidal flats and sand dunes. During the day we make several
stops at and around the island. Lunch break and afternoon coffee on Rømø.
Rømø is connected to the mainland Jutland by means of a ca 10 km long dike. The island has approx. 850 inhabitants in an area of 129 km2, but is visited
by thousands of tourists during the summer. It is famous for its very wide white beach. Greater part of the area is in natural or near-natural state,
and 1.700 hectares are protected.
It belongs to one of the World's most important wadden areas and the tidal fluctuations are the basis for life and the biological richness which makes
it unique for Europe.
Sand drift is especially obvious in the front of the dunes, and is prevented by planting of Ammophila. Here we may expect to find Elytrigia juncea and
3 additional spp., Cakile maritima, Salsola. Further inland Koehleria glauca, Oenothera ammophila, Silene otites, Rosa pimpinellifolia.
Behind the dunes are sandy areas with low open vegetation, and in the depressions a variation of small boggy areas with herbs and many Carex species.
The eastern part of the island is dominated by extensive salt marshes, that may be flooded during high tide. Species distribution here is primarily
correlated with the influence of sea water. The flora of the salt marshes includes Atriplex pedunculata, Puccinellia maritima, Salicornia, Spartina,
Spergularia, Glaux, Juncus gerardi, Limonium vulgare, Artemisia maritima, Bupleurum tenissimum.
17.00 Arrival DanHostel in the historical town of Ribe
19.00 Dinner buffet at the Danhostel
Monday August 18
09.00 Departure Ribe
10.30 Randbøl Hede, a remnant of the moorlands that once covered large parts of Jutland. Lunch break
Randbøl Hede, covering 750 hectares is the largest remaining inland area of heathland in Denmark. It was protected in 1932. The heath is in an
unstable community, and needs management by burning or cutting of the heather in order to avoid that it turns into forest. Earlier it was maintained
due to extensive grazing by sheep, paring of heath peat etc. This practise is long abandoned. At present the most serious threat is the massive
invasion of Molinia, apparently caused by the nitrogen in rain water.
13.00 Staksrode Skov, a deciduous forest on plastic clay on the northern shore of Vejle Fjord, with patches of lime-rich soil and a rich and varied flora
The forest is dramatically varied due to the rather steep slope toward the shore. Due to the plastic clay there are relatively frequent land slips,
that contribute to the interrupted forest canopy and ample light on the forest floor. The flora is rich especially in herbaceous plants, with several
orchid species, e.g. Orchis purpurea, and Vicia sylvatica, Equisetum telmateia, and Melampyrum nemorosum.
Coffee break on the way back to Copenhagen
17.00 Arrival Copenhagen
