New teams for the master's degree in climate change
Between September and October, the University of Azuay acquired new equipment for the master's program “Climate change, agriculture and sustainable rural development (MACCARD)”.
This master's degree belongs to the Erasmus + program, which means that it is taught in different universities around the world and the participating institutions have access to funding from the European Union. For this reason, the UDA has been able to acquire the equipment that will help students to put theoretical knowledge into practice and carry out research theses.
MACCARD is a master's degree that has special characteristics, since students can travel for a month with funding from the program and, self-financed, they can take courses at participating universities.
Researchers from the UDA of the School of Environmental Engineering, Biology and the IERSE (Institute of Sectional Regime Studies of Ecuador) participate in the program, as well as international teachers.
Regarding the equipment, the first one - according to Ana Ochoa, coordinator of the program, comments in an interview - is a meteorological station, installed in the Faculty of Science and Technology, so that MACCARD students can manipulate and see how each one of sensors, in addition to analyzing the data and using it in subjects.
"This station monitors variables of precipitation, solar radiation, temperature, air humidity and atmospheric pressure," explains Ochoa.
On the other hand, there is the soil team that extracts undisturbed samples, which makes it possible to identify their characteristics in the field. This has multiple applications, one of which is to analyze the impact of climate change on agriculture.
"There is also the lysimeter, which reveals the evapotranspiration of the vegetation, which also has agricultural applications, because here it is important to know how plants transpire and how much water is lost during evaporation," says Ochoa.
Another piece of equipment is that of water quality monitoring, which will be used by students to analyze pollutants in rivers and their effects on ecosystems.
In addition, the program acquired an interactive whiteboard, a printer, and Ochoa maintains that new equipment will be available until the start of the master's degree in May.
UDA Correspondent
