Press appearances
Life Blue Natura will recognise the Posidonia meadows of Cabo Gata
Publication date: November 2017
Project: LIFE Blue Natura
Medium: Almería Daily
Type: Newspaper article
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The community representatives of Life Blue Natura will tour part of the protected coastline of the Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park to conduct a survey of the sampling points within its renowned Posidonia oceanica meadows. These Posidonia meadows capture tonnes of CO2 each year, which are incorporated into the mat, in the soil beneath the plant, forming a blue carbon sink, a "natural store". This term refers to the carbon fixed by coastal ecosystems such as coastal marshes and seagrass meadows.
The Millennial Diary of Lake Dos Nenos
Publication date: November 2017
Project: Paleopark
Medium: Faro de Vigo
Type: Newspaper article
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6,000 years ago, Lake dos Nenos was a coastal freshwater wetland with great biodiversity, which the ocean invaded approximately 3,000 years later, gradually transforming it into a marine ecosystem surrounded by holm oaks, pines, and extensive heaths. Today, it is severely degraded and barren as a result of the dam built in 1943. This entire ecological history is preserved in just two and a half metres of sediment, which researchers from the Paleopark project, led by the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB), part of the CSIC, have deciphered over the past year. Their findings not only reveal the millennial past of Cíes but will also help restore the lake’s natural ecosystem and the original landscape of the archipelago.
A chronicle written centimetre by centimetre
Publication date: November 2017
Project: Paleopark
Medium: Faro de Vigo
Type: Newspaper article
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The sediments extracted from the bottom of Lake dos Nenos were divided into hundreds of samples, some of which were sent to laboratories in Canada or London to undergo cutting-edge methods. "We developed very pioneering techniques with good results. And this also has great value," emphasises Paleopark's manager, Miguel Ángel Mateo. The team sent to Cíes in June 2016 conducted several drillings until they found "the appropriate archive" and extracted two cores about two and a half metres in total length, encompassing 6,000 years of history.
TV Appearances
Posidonia oceanica Life Blue Natura project
Publication date: November 2017
Project: LIFE Blue Natura
Medium: Canal Sur
Type: Video report
Direct link to the report
The LIFE BLUE NATURA project, as reported by Espacio Protegido on Canal Sur Television. Posidonia Oceanica is one of the carbon sinks, thus helping to mitigate climate change. This is what is called Blue Carbon; conserving these meadows and marine forests is the aim of the European project Life Blue Natura.
GCiencia accompanies GAME on a campaign day in the Cíes Islands
Publication date: September 2017
Project: Paleopark
Medium: GCiencia – Galician Science Creative Industries Ltd.
Type: Video report
Direct link to the report
The Cíes Islands are a paradise in the Ría de Vigo and the heart of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park. There, a small lagoon, A Lagoa dos Nenos, holds ancient secrets about the history of the archipelago. Its depths contain sediments that allow the tracing of the human footprint on nature. A team of seven researchers from the Paleopark project, led by Miguel Ángel Mateo, collected sediment samples from the lagoon over the course of a week in order to reconstruct the island's past. They managed to obtain biological records dating back up to six thousand years.
The Mediterranean of millennia ago
Publication date: July 2015
Project: Paleopark, Sumilen
Medium: TVE – Channel 24h
Type: Video report
Direct link to the report
The Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park in Mallorca is one of the great natural laboratories where marine research projects are carried out. The programme has been there with Miguel Ángel Mateo, Ecologist and Senior Researcher at the CSIC, and the GAME team from the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes. They carry out the Sumilén and Paleopark projects, which use deposits of marine phanerogams to study, among other things, current environmental health and the history of our Mediterranean Sea. For the young researchers participating in the project, working in the field with people from all over the world on such a unique subject is a great experience.
2nd Technical Conference. Miguel Ángel Mateo.
Publication date: November 2013
Project: LIFE Blue Natura
Medium: Life Posidonia Andalucía – Videos
Type: Video report
Direct link to the report
The Millennial Archive of Posidonia Oceanica: Returning to the Past to Improve the Future. Miguel Ángel Mateo. Advanced Studies Centre of Blanes. Spanish National Research Council.
Radio appearances
Mini-report on the CARBOMED project
Evaluate the effects of the 2008 Levante storm on the Catalan coasts.
Scheduled oil explorations off the Balearic Islands
Metal pollution in the Mediterranean
Date: 18/10/2006
Medium: Catalonia Radio
50-minute interview with Miguel Ángel Mateo by Oscar Montferrer, an intramural CSIC project that M.A. Mateo coordinated to assess the effects of the 2008 Levante storm on the Catalan coasts.
Date: 19/10/2012
Medium: Mataró Radio – «Waves of the Sea»
Collaboration of Miguel Ángel Mateo, as an expert from the CSIC, in the debate on the scheduled oil explorations off the Balearic Islands.
Date: 17/02/2014
Medium: The Morning on 4 Bands (Radio 4-RNE)
Date: 16/11/2011
Medium: Radio Blanes
