Results of the Cretan meeting available on-line

Meeting sessions at the MAICh, Chania, Crete. Photo credits: Apostolis Kaltsis (UNKA), which acted as official photographer of the meeting

The SEMCLIMED's partners can access the presentations made during the last meeting in the MAICh (Crete, Greece, 25-29th September 2007) as well as other interesting documents facilitated by some of the expertises attending it. Amongst other, the meeting held communications made by cellebrated specialists in Climate Change and/or their effects on wild flora or its behaviour, like Dr. Michael Gottfried (University of Vienna), Dr. Miguel B. Araújo (CSIC, Spain), Dr David Corell (CEAM, Spain) and Drs. Helena Flocas and Costas Thanos (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). To obtain more information on the webpage access, the partners' teams must contact project.cief@gva.es or gestio.cief@gva.es

The meeting attendants during the visit to the microreserve at Chrysoskalitissa. Photo credits: Apostolis Kaltsis (UNKA), official photographer of the meeting

Latest issues of National Geographic focused on Climate Change effects

The recent issues of the main edition of National Greographic Magazine, as well as most of the national editions in the latest issue (October 2007), are focused on the effects of Climate Change. Some recent issues can also be consulted in the abstracts edited on line. Here you are some examples:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0706/feature1/

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0706/feature2/

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0709/glacier-waterton/glacier-waterton.html

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-10/carbon-crisis/carbon-crisis.html

Planta Europa V and the climate change issue

The effect of Climate Change on wild plants in Europe has been incorporated as a cross-cutting issue in the whole text, objectives and targets of the 2nd European Strategy of Plant Conservation (2008-2013), to be drafted and refined during the next months by the Secretariat of Planta Europa (www.plantaeuropa.org), after the proposals made by the delegates who attended the 5th European Conference on the Conservation of Wild Plants recently cellebrated in Cluj-Napoca (Rumania). The importance of global warming, greenhouse effect and other evidences associated to climate change, where explained by Victoria Chester -see picture-, Chief Executive of Plantlife International (www.plantlife.org.uk), the most important European NGO devoted to the conservation of wild plants and fungi. A time drafted, re-circulated and consultated amongst the Planta Europa's member institutions, the new strategy will be endorsed to the Council of Europe in order to join more efforts and enhance the effectivity of the future actions for plant conservation in Europe.

Climate Change, star topic in the 3rd Spanish Congress of Plant Conservation

Climate change became one of the main topics of the Spain's 3rd National Congress on Conservation Biology of Wild Plants, cellebrated by 25-27th september 2007 in Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife, Canary Islands), thanks to the intervention of meteorologist Dr Silvia Alonso, who explained the foreseen effects of global warming and other climate effects up to 2100 in Canary Islands. The Western Canary islands, and particularly Tenerife, crowned by the volcano Teide (the highest altitude to Spain, 3.718 m.o.s.l.), are influenced by the effect of subtropical winds -Alisio wind-; as a result of that, a semi-permanent layer of clouds, usually placed between 1.000 and 2.000 m in altitude, separate two strong weather regimes -below and over the cloud sea-, which could be severely affected during the next decades. As Dr Alonso shown, the temperatures over the cloud layer level, calculated for the Izaña observatory, could raise up to 7-8ºC during the period 2000-2100, causing the extinction of most part of the current wild plant species -all of them practically endemic to the archipelago- in the supra and oromediterranean belts; below the cloud sea, the temperature increase only will reach 2-3ºC by the coast and 4-5ºC at medium altitudes, due to the modulated effect of the Atlantic sea. Canary Islands are the most important hotspot for wild flora in Europe, holding more than 500 endemic species -more than 70% of its floristic composition-. Under this critical scenario, the work of seedbanks must go on quickly, in order to pick up and store seeds as fast as possible!.

Dr Silvia Alonso, from the Spain's National Institute of Meteorology, during her presentation to the 3rd National Congress on Biology of Plant Conservation© E. Laguna

The Blog Action Day devoted to Climate Change

A Day, One Question, Thousands of Voices!!! The last 15th October, www.blogger.com cellebrated the Blog Action Day, whose main topic was the climate change and its effects on the environment (so, on the humankind, of course). During a few days, each national version of www.blogger.com will maintain links and some posts related with this topic.