The study of climate change is essential to know the negative effects and be able to anticipate, creating management and administration policies of the territory and natural resources.
Teide National Park has weather stations that monitor the effects of climate change. Starting in November, the number of stations will increase to seven.
Study climate change
It is necessary to expand the monitoring network of the phenomena and effects that have to do with climate change if we want to be able to develop adaptation plans and programs to the new scenarios that await us in the future.
In this case, the expansion of the monitoring network using the weather stations in Teide National Park is part of a comprehensive program carried out by the National Parks Autonomous Agency (OAPN), which also includes Picos de Europa, Sierra Nevada, Cabrera, Ordesa y Monte Perdido, Cabañeros, Islas Atlánticas, and Taburiente. This effort is vital for understanding how climate change affects diverse environments. Furthermore, climate change also impacts the adaptation of various species, particularly as detailed in the section on plant adaptation to climate change.
The goal of this increased monitoring is to assess the impact of climate variability in order to anticipate and create models that aid in climate prediction. These stations measure temperature, precipitation, wind, and solar radiation every ten minutes throughout the year. Using all this data, models are generated that, based on the behavior of meteorological variables across all recorded data, can estimate how these variables will change with the increasing greenhouse effect and climate fluctuations.
Increase in seasons
The five existing stations are located at the base of the Las Cañadas caldera, and the new ones will be situated at altitudes of 2.700 and 3.200 meters to obtain precise information on the implications of the altitudinal gradient of Mount Teide. This is essential, as climate change is altering ecological patterns at different altitudes, as evidenced by the study of vegetation under extreme conditions.
The number of stations will increase to seven, as it is essential to place them in this location because the effects of climate change are most acutely felt in these places.
The temperature at these altitudes has been increasing at a rate of more than one tenth and a half of a degree per decade for more than seventy years, an advance higher than the average for Tenerife, which stands at one tenth of a degree per decade, and the global average.
