LiquenCity
The LiquenCity project (http://www.liquencity.org), co-funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT, in Spanish), aims to raise awareness among the urban population of Madrid and Barcelona about the effects of air pollution and its impact on human health. During the project, the presence of epiphytic lichens in both cities will be tracked by secondary students using the citizen science platform Natusfera. All the occurrences registered by these students will be validated by a community of lichens experts.
This project is mainly addressed to:
- Secondary students and teachers.
- Environmental organizations.
- Citizens with interest in environmental topics.
The main project actions are classified into 3 different stages:
- Elaborating the educational material and disseminating the project: materials will be in Spanish and Catalan and they will be available on the project website.
- Training and fieldwork in high schools: students will learn about lichens, how they are affected by air pollution and its ability as air quality bioindicators. This activity will be complemented by a fieldwork aimed to register lichens in the areas close to the high schools.
- Analysis, preparation, and dissemination of the project’s results.
Project partners:
- GBIF Spain.
- Royal Botanic Garden (RJB-CSIC).
- Center for Ecological Research and Forest Implementation (CREAF).
- Institute for Marine Science (ICM-CSIC).
- Universitat de Barcelona (UA)
*If you are interested in participating in the project, please contact us to infogbifspain@gmail.com (Madrid) or to liquencity@creaf.uab.cat (Barcelona).
With the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.