This activity, the result of a collaboration between the Faculty of Experimental Sciences and CECOUAL, allows students to put their knowledge into practice in their closest environment, with the support of academic staff and a large group of researchers.
This week the UAL campus hosted a very special Environmental Science degree activity, one of the oldest at this university, which was carried out in 1995. Its students were able to put their ideas into practice in their immediate environment. Together with faculty members and with the participation of a large group of researchers, they undertook the Biodiversity Marathon thanks to the collaboration of their college, the Faculty of Experimental Sciences, with the Scientific Collections Research Centre.
As a team, they carried out comprehensive inventories of the campus's flora and fauna, both vertebrates and invertebrates, following the inaugural display of activity that took place in the CECOUAL Natural History Pavilion. There they received a welcome and instruction about the day from Juan José Moreno, as Dean of the School of Experimental Sciences, María Jacoba Salinas, Vice Dean of Environmental Sciences, and Manuel Ortega, their degree coordinator.
Students were reminded that the main purpose of biodiversity inventories is to collect objective, reliable and comparable information, in short, scientific information, which serves as a basis for developing policies for the conservation, management and sustainable use of natural heritage. Thus the task to be carried out was revealed. During the morning students, professors and researchers worked together on tasks of exploring and documenting the diversity of plant and animal species living on campus.
The University of Almería campus is home to remarkable biodiversity, associated with its botanical gardens and ornamental gardens, with different environments and habitats. Among others, it is worth noting the water parks, the salt park or the volcanic geopark. These spaces are home to a wide variety of plant species, invertebrates, terrestrial vertebrates and birds. It has also become clear that a biodiverse and sustainable campus benefits the entire university community.
It does this in different ways, providing improvements to your mental health such as reducing stress and anxiety, or improving mood and vitality. These are the aspects that define a healthy campus for students, faculty, research and service staff, and even outreach to the community at large, which uses UAL's parks and streets as a recreational area. The importance of the biodiversity stock adds much to this, and the natural history wing and open spaces of the campus provide valuable resources for teaching and research for all undergraduate degrees.
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