In an article published in the Anniversary Special of El Mercurio de Valparaíso, Las Salinas showed the work developed in the Plant Laboratory. We invite you to review the information: Climate Change challenges cities hard. And while the water truck irrigates the coastline with large amounts of water, in the Plant Laboratory located on the grounds of Las Salinas, the coastal watercourse provides the natural and sufficient irrigation for the species that develop there to continue growing. After almost three years of research, the creators of the Plant Laboratory already have the results to have a proposal of species that can be used in coastal urban public spaces. Scientists from the PUCV, together with Las Salinas, developed a formula that replicates the native nature of this area, with very low maintenance species. The idea is to share this model with interested municipalities so that they can adapt their green areas to climate change and the water crisis based on the immense biological richness of native species. Biologist Salvador Donghi, one of the promoters of the Plant Laboratory, says that “this is an intelligent way of adapting to climate change. We still have several years of drought ahead of us and we won’t have water to irrigate our gardens. So what are we going to do, let it all dry up? What we have studied in the plant lab gives us a clear answer. Let’s change the formula: let’s go back to the evolutionary history of our country”. The Plant Laboratory is made up of 100% native species, 60% of which are endemic. 25 plant species that coexist with each other and are part of the coastal Mediterranean sclerophyllous shrubland, one of the 17 vegetational levels known in the Valparaíso region.
