Loro Parque Foundation is launching today, Friday July 13, a pioneering project to study the effects of climate change in the sea, with the support of the Canary Islands Government. The project foresees an investment of two million euros over four years, spread over several lines of work, ranging from the monitoring of marine chemistry parameters to the study of algae, angelsharks and sea turtles. The institution, based in what has been recognised as the world’s best zoo, will thus help to provide as much information as possible to monitor the effects of this global change on the Canary Islands.
This agreement between the Foundation and the Canary Islands Government has been reached after a detailed technical evaluation with research groups from the two Canary Islands universities and other scientific research centres, and will initiate the development of a coastal network to monitor marine environmental parameters linked to climate change, ocean acidification and underwater noise pollution, as well as their effects on marine biodiversity in the Canary Islands.
The project’s activities will focus on three main themes: CO2 absorption in the ocean, climate change and ocean acidification; the acoustic environment, underwater noise and its effects on marine fauna and the loss of marine biodiversity and the effects on island species and marine ecosystems.
All these actions establish synergies with previous activities of the Loro Parque Foundation in the archipelago and, in each case, will allow us to obtain essential information with which to interpret the effects that global change will produce on the marine organisms of the Canary Islands and the Macaronesia. Thus the region will become a world reference point, providing relevant data on climate change for the international community, while at the same time helping to diagnose the effects of global change in the region.
In addition, this agreement will lay the foundations to guarantee the future development of time-series stations and oceanic measurements in the region, with technology produced in the Canary Islands. Hereby, Loro Parque Foundation reinforces its commitment to becoming a scientific and technological reference within the framework of global change and the Blue Economy.
