'Lanzarote has forests and they are under the sea' is the motto of the outreach action through which more than 130 high school and secondary school students from four schools in Lanzarote are discovering the black coral forests, of unknown extension and centuries-old, which are hidden from view in the seabed near Puerto del Carmen and which are still in the analysis and study phase by the B-CHARMED project, led by the Atlantic Biodiversity and Sustainability Association (ABAS) and financed by the LIFE Program of the European Union, the French Office for Biodiversity and the French Development Agency, through the LIFE4BEST program.
The project has the collaboration of the University Institute of Research in Sustainable Aquaculture and Marine Ecosystems (IU-ECOAQUA) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC).
Francisco Otero-Ferrer, PhD in Marine Sciences and principal investigator of B-CHARMED, also associated with IU-ECOAQUA; and Lorenzo Bramanti, researcher at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) belonging to LECOB (France), are responsible for giving these 50-minute talks, which have been extended in several sessions in April and May. 18 high school students from IES Las Maretas, 30 students between 16 and 18 years old from IES Playa Honda, as well as 39 students from 1st year of ESO and 1st year of Bachillerato from IES Yaiza have already attended online; and this Thursday two new talks will be given at IES Tinajo to 26 students from 1st year of Bachillerato and 20 students from 4th year of ESO. The Cabildo de Lanzarote, through the Biosphere Reserve, has supported this initiative.
The underwater black coral forests, located in the Lanzarote town of Puerto del Carmen, have a series of unique characteristics in terms of accessibility, extension and biological richness that make them an ideal natural laboratory for their study. Hence, the European project B-CHARMED, acronym for "The Black Coral forests as unexplored biodiversity Hotspots in the MAcaronesian Region: ecosysteM functions and sErvices analyseD", has chosen this location as a model area to develop tools to map them and deepen the knowledge of their associated biodiversity.
In this context, these talks have as a central objective to bring students closer to applied research in the marine environment, while emphasizing the enormous value of the natural wealth of the island of Lanzarote and promoting knowledge about the biodiversity of the marine environment of the island and its conservation.
During the development of the talks, students have been able to deepen their knowledge of the particularities of marine forests and, more specifically, black corals and their habitat, as well as what methods are used for their study, what organisms cohabit in them, what importance they have within the marine ecosystem and what are their main threats.
According to the organizers of the talks, the teachers in charge of coordinating them with the institutes have not stopped expressing their satisfaction with the experience, which they have agreed to value as "very interesting", highlighting the practical interest of the same, as an example of important teaching content of each course, such as the study of invertebrates or coral reef ecosystems, through a "a local ecosystem of great value and that the vast majority did not know".
In this regard, it is pointed out that such has been the interest aroused by the talk among students and teachers attending that the centers have already requested that once B-CHARMED has completed the results phase, they be sent "a summary of the same and the conclusions obtained to be treated in class and give continuity to the proposal".
