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