Elli Tzirkalli

Open University of Cyprus · Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences

In response to the ongoing global extinction, conservationists must prioritize future conservation investments to ensure that such measures are biologically effective and economically viable. To propose an effective conservation plan for Orthoptera assemblages on Cyprus Island, we introduce the Standardized Conservation Index (StCI), a biodiversity...

European islands are hotspots of biological and cultural diversity, which, compared to mainland, are more vulnerable to climate change, tourism development, uncontrolled land-use changes and the consequences of financial crisis. These drivers of change have increasingly resulted in severe impacts on socio-economic and environmental parameters. Proj...

GYPWORLD 2023 Conference Proceedings

Keywords: LCA; sustainable agriculture; grapes; GHG emissions; biodiversity metric.

Interspecific competition occurs when two sympatric species utilize the same limited supply of a basic resource, such as food; the degree of diet overlap is an essential metric for examining potential competition between the species. The Long-legged Buzzard (Buteo rufinus) is a relative newcomer to the island of Cyprus, where it is sympatric with t...

Biodiversity monitoring plays an essential role in tracking changes in ecosystems, species distributions and abundances across the globe. Data collected through both structured and unstructured biodiversity recording can inform conservation measures designed to reduce, prevent, and reverse declines in valued biodiversity of many types. However, giv...

Biodiversity monitoring plays an essential role in tracking changes in ecosystems, species distributions and abundances across the globe. Data collected through both structured and unstructured biodiversity recording can inform conservation measures designed to reduce, prevent, and reverse declines in valued biodiversity of many types. However, res...

Invasive alien species (IAS) are known to be a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function and there is increasing evidence of their impacts on human health and economies globally. We undertook horizon scanning using expert-elicitation to predict arrivals of IAS that could have adverse human health or economic impacts on the island of Cypru...

In this report, we update the European Grassland Butterfly Indicator, present new butterfly indicators for widespread species, woodland butterflies, as well as butterflies in urban environments, in Natura 2000 areas and as climate change indicators. The indicators use field data up to and including the 2018 field season. The method for calculating...

In this study we investigate the environmental factors influencing butterfly communities and evaluate the Natura 2000 network’s effectiveness in representing butterfly species richness and abundance, taking as a case study the island of Cyprus. We sampled butterflies and 11 environmental factors in 60 randomly selected sites across four 500-m eleva...

Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the major drivers of change that can negatively affect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and services and human health; islands are particularly vulnerable to biological invasions. Horizon scanning can lead to prioritisation of IAS to inform decision-making and action; its scale and scope can vary depending o...

Red Lists are very valuable tools in nature conservation at global, continental and (sub-) national scales. In an attempt to prioritise conservation actions for European butterflies, we compiled a database with species lists and Red Lists of all European countries, including the Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). In tot...

The Natura 2000 network is an essential tool for the protection and conservation of habitats and species throughout Europe. Each member state is responsible for the designation and management of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs), according to the provisions of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). One of the key components for the conservation of...

Mountains are complex ecosystems supporting a great variety of taxa. Here, we explored the diversity patterns of arthropods in two mountains, pinpointing the spatial scale that accounts most for overall diversity variation, using an additive partitioning framework. Butterflies and Orthoptera were sampled in Rodopi (2012) and Grammos (2013) mountain...

Aim The Mediterranean Red List assessment is a review of the conservation status at regional level of approximately 6,000 species (amphibians, mammals, reptiles, fishes, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, molluscs, corals and plants) according to the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinct...

Aim The application of island biogeography theory in habitat fragmentation research assumes a simple relationship between species richness and fragment area. However, previous work has suggested that in some cases thresholds can be detected, at which the form of the island species–area relationship (ISAR) changes abruptly. Piecewise regression has...

This is the first inventory of wetland habitat sites on the island, in support of biodiversity conservation. The survey utilizes images of a newly launched sensor, Landsat 8, to rapidly identify inland lentic water units and produce a screening-level island-wide inventory of all wetlands larger than 0.2 ha. The method treats all lentic water bodies...

The European protected-area network will cease to be efficient for biodiversity conservation, particularly in the Mediterranean region, if species are driven out of protected areas by climate warming. Yet, no empirical evidence of how climate change influences ecological communities in Mediterranean nature reserves really exists. Here, we examine l...

The present paper studies butterfly, grasshopper and vascular plant communities in ten seasonally flooded grasslands with different anthropogenic disturbance regimes (NW Greece). Disturbance intensity was assessed on the basis of disturbance frequency and type (grazing, mowing, trampling, constructions). The distribution patterns of butterflies are...