Research

Ecological corridors could offer safe passes for species, enhancing the exchange of individuals among isolated patches, and thus benefit population viability through the rescue effect. Habitat corridors could allow the maintenance of ecosystem health, functionality and services by supporting ecological processes (e.g. recycling of nutrients, pollination). Counting for the ongoing and dynamic changes at the landscape and community level, which are triggered by climate change, habitat corridors could offer the means for species to capture their ecological and climatic niche, through shifting their distributions and/or colonizing neighboring sites. Nevertheless, there is still an ongoing scientific discussion on the most appropriate tools and methods to be used for detecting corridors that could maximize the benefits of ecological connectivity across the heterogeneous land- and seascapes. Our active areas of research include:

 

• Developing of novel tools (e.g. graph based metrics) for quantifying ecological connectivity
• Identify  landscape-scale conservation corridors that stretch over extended regions (e.g. transnational or national scales)
• Using biotic metrics to explore hydrological connectivity across wetland ecosystems
• Explore the role of cultural landscapes in facilitating ecological connectivity

Recent Advances on the field 

• Development of R-based tool incorporating 5 novel connectivity metrics
• Using circuit theory to explore connectivity patterns and delineating ecological corridors at land and seascapes.
• Using hydrological models & ecological connectivity tools for assessing habitat use of amphibian species

 

Key members of our team dealing with Connectivity issues:

Lazaros Georgiadis, Biologist with more than 20 years of experience in Ecological Connectivity issues and Green infrastructure. He has been involved in numerus related EU, international and National  projects. he is currently member of the board of IENE.

Panos Petsas,  BSc in Mathematics from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, MSc student in Complex Systems and Networks. I his Phd research he focus on ecological connectivity, working on novel methods towards evaluating and spatiotemporal patterns on land- and sea-scape connectivity.

Dimitrios Malamataris, BSc,  MSc & MSc, Ph.D. Dimitrios is a civil engineer, specializing in climate change impacts on water environment. His research interests and experience include the advanced study of coupled hydrological systems, ecological connectivity, modelling of surface and groundwater flow, analysis of climate data and implementation of downscaling methods, projection of climate change impacts on water resources and flood inundation modelling.

Anastasia Tsavdaridou, BSc & MSc  on Civil Engineering,  Biology PhD candidate. She is interested in macroecology and conservation ecology. Her research focuses on using spatial analyses to guide conservation planning at regional and global scales and generate risk assessment tools. She uses available ecological data to make inferences about conservation strategies around climate change, ecosystem services, global biodiversity patterns and threats. She is particularly fascinated by the complexity of freshwater ecosystems.

Vasiliki Almpanidou, Bsc, MSc, Phd. Her research focus on both the terrestrial and marine realm. She is working on different types of models to explore patterns of climatic and ecological connectivity, potential shifts in species distribution and movement patterns. Part of her research focus on the development and application of model methods for assessment of habitat suitability under the land- and seascapes.

 

Indicative projects 

2019 – 22: Tools based on circuit theory and network analysis for studying ecological connectivity in dynamic land- and seascape. Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation

2018 – 21: Combine2Protect – Common Plans for Biodiversity conservation and sustainable targets for the development of bilateral network of protected areas. IPA-CBC Programme, co-founded by the European Union and by National Funds of the Participating Countries

2018 – 19: Systematic conservation planning for biodiversity: developing integrated strategies in a changing planet. Operational Programme “Education and Life Long Learning”, supported by the Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs

2015 – 16: ProLife – The quality of life prerequisite for progress and sustainable development in the cross border area, IPA-CBC Programme, co-founded by the European Union and by National Funds of the Participating Countries

 

Indicative publications

• Petsas, P., Tsavdardirou, A.I., Mazaris, A.D. 2020. A multispecies approach for assessing landscape connectivity in data-poor regions. Landscape Ecology 35,  561–576
• Katsiapi, M., Genitsaris, S., Stefanidou, N., Tsavdaridou, A., Giannopoulou, I., Stamou, G., Michaloudi, E., Mazaris, A. D., Moustaka-Gouni, M. 2020. Ecological connectivity in two ancient lakes: impact upon planktonic cyanobacteria and water quality. Water 12, 18
• Almpanidou, V., Mazaris, A.D., Mertzanis, Y., Avraam, I., Antoniou, I., Pantis, J.D., Sgardelis, S.P. 2014. Providing insights on habitat connectivity for male brown bears: A combination of habitat suitability and landscape graph-based models. Ecological Modelling 286, 37-44
• Mazaris, A.D., Papanikolaou, A.D., Barbet-Massin, M., Kallimanis A.S., Jiguet, F., Schmeller, D., Pantis, J.D. 2013. Evaluating the connectivity of a protected areas’ network under the prism of global change: The efficiency of the European Natura 2000 network for four birds of prey. Plos One 1371/journal.pone.0059640

Protected areas (PAs) represent the main tool of modern society to mitigate the loss of biological diversity, thereby maintaining ecosystem functionality and services. The new Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity promotes the expansion of the global coverage of PAs, through Aichi Target 11, to reach at least 17% of land and 10% of marine waters by 2020. Undoubtedly, in human dominated regions, the establishment of PAs is challenging due to multiple human uses of land and sea, while the efficiency of the current PAs network has been largely questioned.

 

The goal of this research area is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the following topics:

 

• How efficient is the coverage and distribution of current PAs and priority regions for expanding the global PAs network?
• How could we ensure the coherence and ecological sufficiency of protected areas?
• How efficient are networks of PAs in conserving biodiversity targets under land use and climate change? Could these networks safeguard coherence and resilience to these threats?
• How could we advance systematic conservation planning tools to satisfy alternative criteria, ensuring an optimal spatial conservation prioritisation?

 

Indicative publications

• Mazaris, A. D., Almpanidou, V., Wallace, B. P., Pantis, J. D., & Schofield, G. 2014. A global gap analysis of sea turtle protection coverage. Biological Conservation 173, 17-23
• Vokou, D., Dimitrakopoulos, P. G., Jones, N., Damialis, A., Monokrousos, N., Pantis, J. D., Mazaris A.D., & Natura-2000 Committee 2014. Ten years of co-management in Greek protected areas: an evaluation. Biodiversity and Conservation 23, 2833-2855
• Tsianou, M. A., Mazaris, A. D., Kallimanis, A. S., Deligioridi, P. S. K., Apostolopoulou, E.,  Pantis, J. D. 2013. Identifying the criteria underlying the political decision for the prioritization of the Greek Natura 2000 conservation network. Biological Conservation 166, 103-110

We work at the interface between global change ecology, population dynamics and evolutionary biology. Our active areas of research include:

 

• Investigating the efficiency of sea turtle adaptive mechanisms to climate change
• Examining recent adaptive responses to local conditions vs distant evolutionary events on structuring the climatic niche of sea turtles
• Estimating population viability and global trends
• Prioritizing global conservation efforts and identifying risk hotspots for sea turtles

 

Indicative publications

• Hays, G. C., Mazaris, A. D., Schofield, G. 2014. Different male vs. female breeding periodicity helps mitigate offspring sex ratio skews in sea turtles. Frontiers in Marine Science 1, 43
• Mazaris, A.D., Kallimanis, A.S., Pantis, J.D., Hays, G.C. 2013. Phenological response of sea turtles to environmental variation across species’ northern range. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 280, 20122397
• Mazaris, A.D., Matsinos, Y.G., Pantis, J.D. 2009. Evaluating the impacts of coastal squeeze on sea turtle nesting.Ocean and Coastal Management 52, 139-145

The climate of the planet is changing, affecting the distribution, abundance, dynamics, behaviour and physiology of populations and communities. Therefore, anticipating the future under the prism of climate change represents one of the main challenges that modern communities have to deal with. Recent and ongoing questions in this area include:

 

• Ecological responses to climate change
• Prediction of climate change impacts on species distributions and population dynamics
• Levels of climate change, climate change velocity and rate of species adaptation

 

Indicative publications

• Almpanidou, A., Schofield, G.,Kallimanis, A.S.,  Türkozan, O., Hays, G.C., Mazaris A.D.2016 .Using climatic suitability thresholds to identify past, present and future population viability. Ecological Indicators 71, 551-556
• Mazaris A.D.,Vokou, D., Almpanidou, V., Türkozan, O., Sgardelis, S.P. 2015. Low conservatism of the climatic niche of sea turtles and implications for predicting future distributions. Ecosphere 6, 1-12
• Lehsten, V., Sykes, M. T., Scott, A. V., Tzanopoulos, J., Kallimanis, A., Mazaris, A., Verburg, P.H., Schulp, C. J.E., Potts, S.G. Vogiatzakis, I. 2015. Disentangling the effects of land-use change, climate and CO2 on projected future European habitat types. Global Ecology and Biogeography 24, 653-663