Students from Madrid and Barcelona will determine the air quality through the study of lichens

Today, GBIF Spain, the Royal Botanical Garden (RJB-CSIC) of Madrid, CREAF and the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) of Barcelona have launched the LiquenCity project. The scientific team associated to this project will use the slogan “look for urban lichens and know your city quality air” to make known these organisms to roughly a thousand teachers and students from high schools located in Madrid and Barcelona.

During the next scholar year, around thirty high school groups will learn that the lichens species growing up in the trees of our cities are indicating to us what is the air pollution level we breathe, will know how to identify them and will work in the field in order to create maps with the lichens of both cities.

The project has the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and its main goal is to raise awareness about the effects of air pollution in our health.

The maps created by the students will be useful to assess the atmospheric pollution in each district, know what polluting substances exist, and implement corrective measures to improve the public health of people living in these two cities.

With the support of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.