Climate Detectives Projects 2020-2021


Project topic: Climate change

Project title: Mar Menor: current situation and future threats in the face of climate change

Team: Astromind

IES La Flota   Murcia   Spain   18 8Student’s age: 12-13 years old, 14-15 years old


Research question

Is the Mar Menor vulnerable to climate change but will it be aggravated by intensive agriculture?

Summary of the project
Mar Menor

We have searched for information about the evolution of physical, chemical and biological parameters over the last years trying to find out if climate change has influenced the Mar Menor. The information we have found has focused on research, news and satellite data that can give us an answer to our questions. We have interviewed experts who are dedicated to the study of the Mar Menor, to get their view of what is happening. These researchers say that climate change is not currently affecting the Mar Menor, but that in the future it may be threatened.

Main results and Conclusions
DANA 09/13/2019

Is the Mar Menor vulnerable to climate change but will it be aggravated by intensive agriculture?

We have searched for information about the evolution of physical, chemical and biological parameters over the last years trying to find out if climate change has influenced the Mar Menor. The information we have found has focused on research, news and satellite data that can give us an answer to our questions. We have interviewed experts who are dedicated to the study of the Mar Menor, to get their view of what is happening. These researchers say that climate change is not currently affecting the Mar Menor, but that in the future it may be threatened.
We have also obtained physical and chemical data from different years on temperature, oxygen, salinity and transparency, in which we have not seen changes that we could associate with the Mar Menor and also biological data such as the chlorophyll in it, to see how it has evolved from years ago until now, if it has been an evolution and compare it with what is happening now. Apart from these graphical and numerical results, we have collected satellite images from different years to be able to analyse how the Mar Menor has changed over the years until now through these images. Our conclusion is that the Mar Menor is not currently being affected by climate change, but we do not rule out that it could be affected in the future.

What’s Next? Actions to help lessen the problem
Copernicus EMS

Our proposal is related to the valuation and awareness of current and future generations. We warn that climate change cannot be considered as something that will occur in the very distant future, and that it will produce an increase in temperature, but without valuing the associated negative effects. We propose an agricultural activity, which bets on varieties of plants better adapted to warm climates and a more sustainable tourism.

Project link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q2zvKirnZSoTgJDXLHrYVfRX7pxI-0cx/view?usp=sharing

Project poster:

Download project poster PDF

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