CIEMAT has carried out a project to find out the levels of air pollution and the risks that this implies on species, to improve environmental protection policies and public awareness.

The Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT) has completed the project ‘Sensitivity of Iberian subalpine communities to the increase in ozone and atmospheric nitrogen deposition’. The aim was to quantify the risk induced by air pollution in the conservation of vulnerable species in the Mediterranean summits in the context of Global Change and to contribute to the development of environmental protection policies and public awareness. This initiative has had the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition within the framework of its 2017 call for grants. In the 2014 and 2016 call, the entity benefited from grants from the projects “CORETRA. Remote Control of Traffic Emissions” and “Evaluation of the health impact of extreme atmospheric events caused by climate change – SINERGIA”.

This programme has studied, for the first time, the sensitivity of grass species in Mediterranean mountain areas to the two most relevant air pollutants in these places.

During the project, the response to atmospheric pollutants of 5 species present in the Sierra de Guadarrama has been studied, one of them, the Erodium paularense, endemic to the Central System listed as “Endangered” by the Atlas and Red Book of the Threatened Vascular Flora of Spain. The results analysed show that high levels of air pollution can alter the complex physiological mechanisms available to vegetation to survive the harsh environmental conditions of the Mediterranean mountain and thus alter its resilience to climate change. It can also alter the reproductive capacity of some species, which is especially important in the case of relict or endemic species with restricted distribution. In addition, it has been observed that since 2005, the levels of tropospheric ozone pollution in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park are higher than those established in the legislation for the protection of vegetation, while other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides or sulphur dioxide are low.

An important dissemination campaign was also developed with the aim of publicizing the research that is being carried out on the sensitivity of vegetation in mountainous areas to air pollution to the scientific community, providing relevant information to managers on the levels of pollution and the degree of sensitivity of these ecosystems and, finally, to increase the awareness of visitors to the National Park, and of the general public, about the impacts that their daily activities have on the conservation of ecosystems in remote natural areas.