Encontro Scientia with Sergio Chozas (Environmental Stress & Functional Ecology)

2 February 2023 . 12h00
Room 2.2.14, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Over the last decades, there has been a sharp decline in global biodiversity. Land-use change, habitat fragmentation, and climate change are key human-induced causes contributing to the current biodiversity crisis. Global public awareness of climate change concerns is strong, but there has historically been little public awareness of biodiversity loss. This poses a serious challenge for conservation efforts since public support is essential for developing and implementing successful policies to prevent and reverse biodiversity loss.

If general awareness of biodiversity loss is low, knowledge of plant diversity is even lower. Plants have traditionally been overlooked, and expressions such as "plant blindness", defined as a human tendency to ignore plant species, perfectly illustrate the current plant conservation crisis. However, two out of every five plant species face extinction, and plants are essential for maintaining the ecosystems that support all species, including humans, by supplying habitat, shelter, food, and oxygen. Therefore, it is essential to raise public knowledge of the value of plant conservation.

This presentation aims to show how citizen science and mobile apps can be used as educational tools to raise awareness about plant biodiversity among students and the general public. Specifically, we will show the outcomes of three formal education activities and two informal education initiatives that used apps and citizen science to gather data on the distribution of plant diversity and various aspects of plant community and functional ecology.

Join us IN PERSON (FCUL Room 2.2.14) or, if you are located in Azores or at MUHNAC, by Zoom (zoom link here - password: 780706)!

We have been experiencing some technical issues regarding the authentication/connection to the Zoom platform through FCCN. For that, we apologise for any difficulties during the transmission.