In mid-May, Dr Natalija Špeh made a working visit to the partner University of Rijeka, where she lectured at the Faculty of Civil Engineering as part of the Erasmus+ programme. She also presented her joint work with colleagues from the University of Zadar, Department of Geography, on a methodology for inventorying macro-litter on the coasts of islands in the Adriatic Sea, which was developed in 2018. The researchers have identified an increase in the share of plastic waste in the southernmost Adriatic area, the Elaphiti islands, over the period 2021-2023. A new comparison is planned for 2019-2024 in the area of the Losinj basin, to be carried out this year.
In addition to lectures, students also participated in fieldwork. They collected/filtered seawater samples for further (laboratory) biodiversity work on two types of shorelines/beaches along the Riviera: anthropogenic (man-made) and natural. In addition to salinity, sea temperature, one of the indicators of the state of the coastline will be the presence of biota, with emphasis on fish species (bioindication method).
Associate Professor Natalija Špeh has joined the work of researcher Dr Maximilian Wagner from the University of Graz, who is carrying out an international postdoctoral study at the University of Antwerp under the supervision of Associate Professor Igor Ružić.
