On August 19 LIAE scientists went to Ziemupe and introduced the event participants to the diversity of algae and microplastic pollution
Recreational event “ma-DARA” 2023
For more than ten years in August the organization “Ziemupīte” has been organizing recreational event “ma-DARA” in Ziemupe. On Saturday, August 19 the event’s visitors had the opportunity to spend the afternoon in a beautiful environment, enjoying music performances, meeting craftsmen and trying joining various workshops. Nature and its conservation is an important element of the event.
We told the visitors of “ma-DARA” about Baltic Sea algae and the cellulose that can be obtained from them, as well as informed about microplastic pollution research in Latvian waters.
The main theme of the event this year was forest. At first, this topic may seem unrelated to our research areas, but the forest environment reflects anthropogenic activities. For example, forestry processes affect the level of eutrophication in our water bodies, and microplastics are unfortunately all around us and able to transfer from one environment to another. In turn, cellulose, which is traditionally obtained from wood, could be replaced with cellulose from algae, providing sustainable alternatives.
We thank the organizers of “ma-DARA” for the invitation to participate and to the participants for their interest and discussions!
LIAE participation was implemented as part of Interreg BSR project “Blue-Green Bio Lab”,, “Lakes Connect”,“ESF Nr. 8.2.2.0/20/I/003 and Strategic Initiative of the Iceland-Liechtenstein-Norwegian EEA and Norwegian Grant Bilateral Cooperation Fund project “Mikroplastmasas piesārņojuma dinamika un izplatība Latvijas un Islandes jūru un ezeru ūdeņos – jauna sadarbības virziena uzsākšana” .