2019_11_21_CIE_liquen

Analyze air pollution with a mobile application that examines the lichens present in the city and raise awareness among the urban population of the effects that pollution has on our health. These are the objectives of project Liquencity II , which has been joined by the School of Sciences of the University of Navarra and association Terrabiota of Pamplona, together with the Universities of Vigo and Oviedo. Liquencity II will be launched during this academic year with secondary school students, high school diploma and training Professional that through a mobile will analyze lichens and their role as bioindicators of air quality.

This is the second phase of project coordinated by the Royal Botanical Garden and the Global Biodiversity Information Infrastructure (GBIF Spain), which in its previous edition was carried out in Madrid and Barcelona. The study is also supported by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

Schoolchildren will create maps of lichen diversity and atmospheric pollution. Previously, interested teachers will conduct sessions at training and students will learn to identify and quantify lichen species growing on trees.

"Students and teachers will have an application for mobile devices, in whose development we are already working, which will facilitate the taking of data and also have specific materials for each city as tree and lichen cards or educational units," explained the general coordinator project , the researcher CSIC in the Royal Botanical Garden, Sergio Perez-Ortega.

This mobile application will guide the sampling of lichens living on trees and will have all the information from project. It will work on the digital platform Natusfera, but the application at development will be customized for this project so that the taking of data is facilitated and directed by the application and can be easily used by anyone.

All data validated on this platform by expert lichenologists, will become part of the GBIF, so that, in addition to being an awareness-raising project and financial aid to the municipal management , it will also be a citizen science project at the service of the global academic community .

"Our experience with Liquencity tells us that, despite the importance of air quality to our health, the perception of the problem is not widespread among the public. Measures taken to mitigate excessive levels of certain pollutants are often not understood. Therefore, projects that encourage the participation of young people, contributing knowledge, making decisions and thinking of ways to change our habits, such as this one, are key to make a real transition towards more sustainable and healthy cities", adds the manager of project.