We started our day at 7 o’clock by taking a bus to the High Tatras. We drove to the botanical garden of the national park TANAP. The primary goal of the Tatra Nature Exposition is to get to know the Tatra nature as well as to save and preserve rare and endangered species of the Tatra flora, their protection and education for an active relationship with the Tatra nature. We were divided into four groups and our teachers gave us some work. In the botanical garden, we had to work on an online herbarium by taking pictures of plants, find the proper names in Latin, English, German and Slovak for the plants and upload them on Padlet. With the scientists, Assoc. Prof. Dipl.Ing. Peter Fleischer, PhD. & Dipl. Ing. Peter Fleischer Jr., PhD. from the Technical University in Zvolen and Administration of the TANAP National Park, we learned about CO2 emissions and how to calculate consumption of carbon dioxide by the plants and trees. We learned that plants on direct sunlight started to do photosynthesis and consume high amount of CO2. Plants in twilight or night don’t have enough sun radiation to do photosynthesis so they release carbon dioxide, and this process is called respiration. When we combine these two numbers (release/capture) we can decide if the plants are carbon sink (capture > release) or carbon source (release > capture). After the scientifical work we went to a restaurant to have lunch. Our heads were already filled with lots of information, and now the stomach needed a bit of energy as well. After lunch, we went hiking to Zelené pleso (Green Lake) where we stayed for a night. After dinner, we met Mr. Petrík, who is responsible for the hut and had a short discussion on the topic of sustainable resources in the hut (electricity, drinkable water, mobile network, Green lake and how nature changed during the years). We were playing games, eating and laughing till late night. We were completely exhausted, but it was a wonderful day spent in the mountains by the most beautiful weather.
