The Big Seaweed Search, Mexico: a Citizen Science Approach to Resolve Local Environmental and Societal Challenges in a Time of Global Climate Crisis

The climate crisis impacts are global, but it is at the local level where its environmental and societal effects are most keenly felt. The Mexican Caribbean coast is severely impacted by inundations of a large brown seaweed, Sargassum, with devastating consequences for coastal ecosystems and livelihoods dependent on tourism and/or fishing. Adapting the 'Big Seaweed Search' (BSS) – a project that invites people to research the impact of climate change on UK seaweeds – to the Mexico context. This research project aims to transform and empower people’s lives to build resilience to such environmental and societal challenges. By incorporating social science and learning interactions, it is expected that BSS in Mexico will discover new concepts in the subject of learning research, and to understand which factors can enhance a sense of agency for local communities towards the ecosystems in which they reside.

Principal Investigator: Dr Kaysara Khatun, University of Greenwich