Flora and fauna 

ITALY

The local Flora is the so called Mediterranean ‘macchia’ made up by holm oaks and maritime pines,  evergreen shrubs with small trees and herbs.

Our students have attended a lesson in order to recognise the main plants which grow  in the surroundings of La Spezia , and to understand their adaptations to the environment. This area is characterized by hot summers, but it can be cool near the sea with mild winters. Because of this particular climate, much of the woody vegetation is sclerophyll, which means 'hard-leaved'. Sclerophyll vegetation generally has small, dark leaves covered with a waxy outer layer to retain moisture in the dry summer months and to be strong enough to cope with the wind, sun and salt air.

Then every student monitored the most important Mediterranean species in different areas counting how many samples they observed. In this way, they could have an idea of the distribution of the plants in the area and the most frequent species in our region.

Moreover, in order to preserve the environmental quality on our coast and to get our students aware of the importance of our natural environment, the students have taken part in an activity monitoring Flora and Fauna known as “beachcombing”. Eventually, the data were collected and sent to the National Environmental Research Centre.  Pollution and climate changes can affect local biological diversity and monitoring activities of the local species allow researchers to have an affordable indicator for ecosystem sustainability.