News
Looking at climate change together
OdM Climate Tour
04/06/2024
From Observadores del Mar we are going to undertake unprecedented monitoring on the Spanish coasts. Our objective: to know the impact of climate change on the marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean.
We will focus on four of the main effects associated with warming:
1) massive mortalities, specifically of gorgonians, corals and sponges, benthic species associated with the sea bottom that are highly affected by marine heat waves;
2) changes in the distribution and abundance of species, as occurs with various species of fish, both native and exotic, which are moving towards the north and west of the Mediterranean as temperatures increase;
3) changes in life cycles, specifically in the reproductive patterns of Posidonia oceanica, which show an increase in flowering rates in years with warmer summers;
4) the proliferation of jellyfish species, for which an increase in the frequency and extent of blooms has been observed in recent decades.
We will address monitoring through marine citizen science and to do so we will coordinate a network of collaborating diving centers along the Spanish Mediterranean coast.
To do this, we are going to carry out training on data collection protocols so that diving centers can repeat it with their divers and divers at their diving points. With everyone's collaboration we will be able to obtain a global image of the impact of climate change on our coasts.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?
Registration for diving centers is now closed. If you want to participate as a diver, subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss anything ;)
This activity has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the Call for subsidies to carry out projects that contribute to implementing the National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (2021 -2030); and with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology - Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.