Projects

Oxygastra is currently involved in several research and educational projects: creation of a Dragonfly Atlas of Catalonia, standardized monitoring schemes, participation in environmental and nature conservancy associations, giving talks in primary and secondary schools, co-operation in national and international programmes on the distribution and conservation of dragonflies.

The group Oxygastra has always seen as one of its main goals the work on an Atlas of Catalan dragonflies that will contain information on distribution, habitat, behaviour and ecology. As part of this project we have developed a database that includes all bibliographic records from the area, as well data from private collections, museums and unpublished records. The database (2006) contains 8,064 records, corresponding to 239 10x10 UTM squares covering 63% of the Catalonian territory. We expect that the atlas will be published in two years time. While the project is running, we will include a bulletin (Atlas bulletins) in our web site with the most relevant information on its progress.

We have established a number of transects aimed at standardizing the monitoring of dragonfly populations: Delta de l’Ebre, riera d’Òdena (Anoia) and three at Estany de Banyoles. They consist of monitoring programmes that are similar to the well known Butterfly Monitoring Scheme transects.

Oxygastra is willing to cooperate with nature conservancy groups who seek advice on any subject related with dragonflies. We encourage and participate in field trips, lectures, presentations, studies, surveys, monitoring, etc.

One of our main goals is to provide the general public - schools and students in particular - with information about the fascinating world of dragonflies. Accordingly, we have a slide presentation for schools and educational centres which we offer free of charge. The presentation, which reveals the anatomy of dragonflies as well as their life cycle and fascinating behaviour, can be tailored to suit any audience.

One of our aims is to participate in national and European programmes. We are currently participating in the project on the cartography of European dragonflies.