+Biodiversity @CIÊNCIAS

+Biodiversity

+Biodiversity @CIÊNCIAS: Mobilizing CIÊNCIAS community for the improvement of the campus biodiversity and livelihood

“15 – Life on Land”, “11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities”, “4 - Quality Education”

In 2019 the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (FCUL) created the Ideas for Sustainability Contest with the aim of identifying and promoting initiatives that can contribute to sustainability, in the environmental, social and economic aspects within FCUL campus and/or in its interaction with the city of Lisbon. Projects “FCUL+Verde: promoting and valuing flora in Ciências" and "BioCommunity: together we discover biodiversity in Ciências”, which include several members of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes - cE3c and the Urban Lab in their teams, won, ex-aequo, the first edition.

The combination of both projects resulted in a new project, named +Biodiversity @CIÊNCIAS, which is currently being implemented (2020/2021). +Biodiversity @CIÊNCIAS aims to enhance sustainability in the Faculty of Sciences campus and it assumes biodiversity as the pillar sustaining ecosystems and their services and, consequently, human well-being.

Biodiversity is under great pressure, decreasing at an unprecedented rate, mainly due to anthropic factors. To counter this trend, it is essential that citizens are aware of its importance. To address this objective the project aims to monitor biodiversity over time on the FCUL campus, involving both the “Science community” and the citizens who live and work in the area. Using monitoring equipment and data recorded in the citizen science platform BioDiversity4All, everyone will be able to contribute with species records, increasing knowledge about campus diversity and assessing trends in a climate change scenario. At the same time, in a growing context of urban areas, public green spaces are nowadays fundamental for the quality of life of the populations and appear as a necessity for the healthy ecological balance of the urban environment.

At the same time, in a context of continued expansion of cities, public green spaces are nowadays fundamental for the quality of life of the populations and appear as a necessity for the healthy ecological balance of the urban environment. In this context, the projects aim to apply the concept of sustainability in FCUL's green spaces by characterizing and improving the green spaces of the campus.

 

 

Everyone's help and collaboration is important in implementing the project. Just install the INaturalist app on your mobile phone, enter the project +Biodiversity @Ciências and start registering species! To find out more details and be aware of the latest +Biodiversity @Ciências news and initiatives follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The project started on 1 September 2020 and until February 21, 2022 had:

  • 4 642 observations
  • 894 species
  • 169 observers
  • 570 identifiers

The official launch of the Project took place on Sciences Research Day - September 28, 2020.

During this period there were two BioBlitzes at the Lisbon Museum - September 26, 2020 and June 19, 2021

 

There was also an action to record biodiversity on the FCUL campus, in partnership with the Agroecological Caravan, within the framework of the Umundu Festival, on October 2, 2021.

 

Coordinators: Patrícia Tiago and Sergio Chozas.

Project members: Ana Leal, Inês Rosário, Otília Correia, Joana Martelo, Maria Amélia Martins-Loução, Cristina Branquinho, Ana Isabel Correia, Ana Catarina Luz, Cristina Antunes, Ana Júlia Pereira, Margarida Santos Reis, Raquel Mendes, Patrícia Garcia Pereira, Paula Gonçalves, José Lousa, Cristina Catita, Pedro Pinho, Ana Margarida Santos, Cristina Máguas, Núcleo de Estudantes de Biologia da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa.

Find out more about this project:

 

For further information, contact  sustentabilidade@ciencias.ulisboa.pt.