The University of Valencia will be present all across the Valencian territory, also in 2021, thanks to the programme "Universitats Estacionals", which has remained faithful at all times to the Valencian society, taking the scientific production of the UV to a total of 20 venues spread throughout the province of Valencia. In this programme, promoted by the Vice-Principal Office for Territorial Projection and Society, the themes of the different conferences have been organised according to the demands of each town and city to make them as attractive and interesting as possible. These are seasonal events which, in some cases, such as the one in Ontinyent, celebrate their eleventh edition.

PLACE: Municipal museum of Alzira (MUMA)

TITLE: VALENCIAN BIODIVERSITY IN THE FACE OF THE GLOBAL CHANGE CHALLENGE

This edition tackles the problem of global change and its impact on biodiversity in the Valencian Community. The enormous media attention devoted to climate change hides from public opinion other factors such as the fragmentation and destruction of habitats, the pollution of air, soil and water, the overexploitation of species, or the introduction of exotic species, which are perhaps a more immediate threat to species and ecosystems. In order to explain all these threating factors in a general way, and to highlight their impact on the flora, fauna and ecosystems in our territory, we will have the participation of experts from the University of Valencia and technical staff from the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian community council). The programme includes 6 conferences, in which it will be discussed many of the threats to Valencian protected areas in general, and to some representative examples of organisms: marine mammals, birds of prey, butterflies, lichens, and rare, endemic and endangered flora. The lectures addressed at teachers, professionals, students and general public, and will therefore be both informative and rigorous.

The exceptional health measures that have been adopted for this conference require prior registration (link to registration), which is completely free due to the public nature of the University of Valencia. Once registered, it will be possible to attend the conference in person until MUMA's capacity is reached (limited by COVID regulations); but it will also be possible to follow it online, through a link that will be enabled minutes before the start of the conference (link to the streaming). All registered participants will receive a certificate of attendance.