XIB_TCS: Mexican/European citizen supported groundwater monitoring in Tulum/Mexico

In the little Mexican town of Tulum at the hot Caribbean coast of the Yucatan peninsula, citizens work together with Mexican and European scientist to reveal the secrets of their large and vital groundwater rivers hidden in the underground beneath them. 'Xib-TCS' is the abbreviation for 'Xibalba-Top Citizen Science' ('Xibalba' is the Mayan name for the underworld) ...

Tulum is well recognized but not crowded by tourists and famous for its Mayan ruins and cenotes, water filled sinkholes in the jungle. There are speciesrich lagoons and wetland in the nearby Sian Ka'an biosphere reserve as well as a barrier reef near off shore (the second-largest after Australias Great Barrier Reef). However, the extended waterflow system is hidden in a complex network of caves and tunnels in the karstic limestone underground. This network developed during several ice ages when the sea level was up to a hundred metres lower than in the present. Extinct animals - and prehistoric humans - covered in the caves when there was air instead of water, as rare remains prove. Impressive stalagtites and stalagmites developed in halls such big that an airbus A350 aircraft could easily be parked into.

Now, in 2017, austrian-mexican scientific studies already run for more than 10 years. During the years, different scientific european partners joined as like the University of Neuchâtel, ETH Zürich, Switzerland, Technical University of Denmark or Technical University of Vienna. It seems they all like the region - the reasons for that are manifold and described under 'Project'.