Ioannis Vogiatzakis

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Open University of Cyprus

Orchards in insular, mountainous environments provide a range of Ecosystem Services (ES). However, research on the benefits of mixed orchards to ES remains very limited. We use Cyprus as a model to study the ES provided by 52 mixed orchards in Organic (Org) and Conventional (Con) farms. The orchards comprised different tree species including pome a...

Background Water availability is the key limiting factor for plant productivity in drylands covering ca. 40% of Earth’s land surface. For such ecosystems to retain productivity and biodiversity under climatic change, it would be valuable to identify/promote keystone plant species that (i) have developed strategies to more efficiently utilize moistu...

Ecosystem services (ES) assessment is crucial in ecology, with numerous studies seeking to evaluate them. Despite the abundance o methods and indicators, standardization is lacking, hindering comparability and progress in ES understanding and monitoring. This paper reviews indicators used in scientic literature to evaluate mountain ES and then ex...

Increasing conservation targets to protect biodiversity and safeguard sustainability is seen as one-way for humankind. The Half earth concept proposed by E.O. Wilson led to a debate over whether and how this can be achieved given increasing societal needs and pressure for land. The new European Biodiversity Strategy (EBS) for 2030 calls among other...

Mediterranean islands (MI) are hotspots of global biodiversity and lie in one of the most susceptible to climate change (CC) areas of the world; a big challenge for any conservation strategy. In fact, there is already increasing evidence for CC in the region and associated biological responses in MI ecosystems. These include phenological changes an...

Plant to plant interactions are key drivers of community structure and assembly. We investigate the effect of facilitation on phryganic plant community structure, focusing on plant crown size, and whether the identified facilitative interactions related to community architecture are common in arid environments. We analysed the spatial patterns of 1...

Roadkill is widely recognized as one of the primary negative effects of roads on many wildlife species and also has socioeconomic impacts when they result in accidents. A comprehensive dataset of roadkill locations is essential to evaluate the factors contributing to roadkill risk and to enhance our comprehension of its impact on wildlife populatio...

We present an overview of wildlife-vehicle collision (WVC) liability covering 36 European countries. We reviewed approaches to WVC liability which are currently in effect across Europe and their potential consequences for WVC reporting. To obtain relevant information, we conducted a survey, including a web-based questionnaire. We retrieved answers...

Islands are diversity hotspots and vulnerable to environmental degradation, climate variations, land use changes and societal crises. These factors can exhibit interactive impacts on ecosystem services. The study reviewed a large number of papers on the climate change-islands-ecosystem services topic worldwide. Potential inclusion of land use chang...

Islands are diversity hotspots and vulnerable to environmental degradation, climate variations, land use changes and societal crises. These factors can exhibit interactive impacts on ecosystem services. The study reviewed a large number of papers on the climate change-islands-ecosystem services topic worldwide. Potential inclusion of land use chang...

The study of animals’ activity and behavior in the wild is an extremely challenging task. Although tri‐axial accelerometers are invaluable for behavioral analyses, their use is more frequent in large charismatic endotherms with limited application in ectotherms. The scarce utilization of this methodology on small‐size reptiles is focused on animals...

Mixed orchards, planted with different species of tree crops, are a form of a traditional cropping system that has been practiced for millennia in the Mediterranean and provides the important ecosystem service of carbon sequestration. We used six allometric equations (M1-M6) based on existing literature and data from 49 orchards for estimating tree...

Plant-plant interactions are major determinants of the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. There is a long tradition in the study of these interactions, their mechanisms and their consequences using experimental, observational and theoretical approaches. Empirical studies overwhelmingly focus at the level of species pairs or small sets of species....

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...

The island of Cyprus hosts a rich diversity of reptiles, including several endemic species. Reptiles are more common in Mediterranean-type shrublands and other open habitats in Cyprus, although riparian formations offer additional cover and food sources, especially during dry, hot summers. Riparian habitats are often very heterogeneous, an attribut...

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...

Competition within and between species affects community structure and is well documented in raptors. We investigated the spatial distribution of two sympatric raptors in Cyprus, the Bonelli’s Eagle (BE) and the Long-legged Buzzard (LLB). Both species are facultative tree/cliff nesters, with overlapping nesting and foraging areas. In 2021, the BE p...

Even though the reptiles and amphibians of Cyprus are of scientific and conservation importance and although several books, guides and scientific reports have been published the past 30 years, there is a clear absence of a systematic recording and archiving scheme of all available data in a structural database. Towards this end, the Cyprus Herp (=...

GYPWORLD 2023 Conference Proceedings

Plant recruitment interactions (i.e., what recruits under what) shape the composition, diversity, and structure of plant communities. Despite the huge body of knowledge on the mechanisms underlying recruitment interactions among species, we still know little about the structure of the recruitment networks emerging in ecological communities. Modelin...

Roads impacts on wildlife in Cyprus

Even though the reptiles and amphibians of Cyprus are of scientific and conservation importance, and although several books, guides and scientific reports have been published the past 30 years, there is a clear absence of a systematic recording and archiving scheme of all available data in a structural database. Towards this end, the Cyprus Herp (=...

Plant recruitment interactions (i.e., who recruits under whom) between 3,318 vascular plant species across the globe

In the past years, efforts have been made to include connectivity metrics in conservation planning in order to promote and enhance well-connected systems of protected areas. Connectivity is particularly important for species that rely on more than one realm during their daily or life cycle (multi-realm species). However, conservation plans for the...

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

We used Cyprus as a model to link the Water–Energy–Food–Climate (WEFC) nexus indicators (e.g., carbon and water footprints) to the ecosystem services (ES) provided by 39 mixed orchards (stone fruits and nuts) on organic (Org) and conventional (Conv) farms. Food provision was lower for Org than Conv orchards. Management practices in Org mixed orchar...

Using Species Distribution Modeling and Least Cost Path Analysis to examine and assess the impact of climate change currently and in the future regarding the endemic Cypriot subspecies N. n. cypriaca.

Riverine ecosystems are among the most impacted ecosystems worldwide since they are exposed to multiple stressors. Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) changes is the main human imprint on those ecosystems whose spatiotemporal habitat destructions pose a threat to biodiversity, ecosystem integrity and ecological processes. The most important statutory instru...

Riparian zones are the paragon of transitional ecosystems, providing critical habitat and ecosystem services that are especially threatened by global change. Following consultation with experts, 10 key challenges were identified to be addressed for riparian vegetation science and management improvement: (1) Create a distinct scientific community by...

Improving knowledge on species distribution is a fundamental part of ecological research and imperative when it comes to species conservation and management. For rare, endemic and elusive species the effort to obtain reliable ecological data is extremely challenging. Data sparsity, or the use of outdated data, for species that are in the greatest n...

The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has not halted farmland biodiversity loss. The CAP post‐2023 has a new ‘‘Green Architecture,’’ including the new ‘‘Eco‐scheme’’ instrument. How can this new Green Architecture help tackle the biodiversity crisis? Through 13 workshops and an online survey, over 300 experts from 23 European Member...

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...

Despite global efforts to halt biodiversity loss, it continues to decline due to a combination of unsustainable actions, increasing the urgency for measures to reverse this trend. A major constraint regarding efficient biodiversity management is the lack of knowledge on most species' population size and abundance patterns. Reptiles are used in ecol...

GYPWORLD: A Global initiative to understand gypsum ecosystem ecology - III Workshop. Book of abstracts and modelling course Guide. Almería (Spain) 9-13 may, 2022. University of Almería. ISBN: 978-84-1351-141-2.

GYPWORLD: A Global initiative to understand gypsum ecosystem ecology - III Workshop. Book of abstracts and modelling course Guide. Almería (Spain) 9-13 may, 2022. University of Almería. ISBN: 978-84-1351-141-2.

In this paper we design and develop a 3D virtual museum with holistic metadata documentation and a variety of reptile behaviors and movements. First, we reconstruct the reptiles mesh in high resolution, and then create its rigged/skinned digital counterpart. We acquire the movement of two subjects using an optical motion capture system, acceleromet...

Citizen Science (CS), the voluntary participation of lay people in scientific work, is well-established in the fields of nature conservation and biodiversity monitoring due to its potential to create large environmental datasets. This study aims to understand the familiarity, perceptions and attitudes towards CS of the key environmental actors in G...

Seventy five percent of the world's food crops benefit from insect pollination. Hence, there has been increased interest in how global change drivers impact this critical ecosystem service. Because standardized data on crop pollination are rarely available, we are limited in our capacity to understand the variation in pollination benefits to crop y...

The European Union (EU) has committed to an ambitious biodiversity recovery plan in its Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Green Deal. These policies aim to halt biodiversity loss and move towards sustainable development, focusing on restoring degraded habitats, extending the network of protected areas (PAs), and improving the effectiveness of...

Positive interactions between nurse plants and their facilitated species are most notable in dry/high-elevation habitats. Plants that modify limiting resources or constraining variables creating an even stronger positive impact on the community are considered ecosystem engineers. Ziziphus lotus, a dominant deep-rooted shrub of arid/semi-arid Medite...

Cyprus’ biodiversity is under increasing pressure due to anthropogenic activities. The Natura 2000 (N2K) sites under the Habitats Directive cover 10.4% of its island’s land surface while designation has been hindered by a complex political situation. We used a comprehensive dataset of Red Data Book (RDB) plants for the island and applied systematic...

Phlomis cypria ssp. occidentalis is one of the Red Data Book species of the island of Cyprus with restricted distribution, whose conservation status must be periodically assessed under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. We used the known species occurrence records (120 geo-referenced points) and six environmental variables (bioclimatic and bioph...

Changes in land use/land cover (LULC) are the key factors driving biodiversity and ecosystem services decline globally. This study examines spatiotemporal LULC changes in a Ramsar coastal temporary wetland (Larnaca Salt Lake) on the island of Cyprus between 1963 and 2015. LULC changes in the area are related to variations in the provision of ecosys...

Rapid qualitative field methods can be used to evaluate ecological integrity (EI) at a landscape level. This study evaluates the EI of 63 landscape types (LCTs) in Cyprus derived from Landscape Character Mapping. Following a stratified sampling, LCTs were evaluated using 209 Land Description Units (LDUs) i.e., homogeneous map entities, sharing a si...

High mountain zones in the Mediterranean area are considered more vulnerable in comparison to lower altitudes zones. Lefka Ori massif, a global biodiversity hotspot on the island of Crete is part of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA) monitoring network. The paper examines species and vegetation changes with r...

Despite covering only 0.82% of the ocean’s surface, the Mediterranean Sea supports up to 18% of all known marine species, with 21% being listed as vulnerable and 11% as endangered. The acceler- ated spread of tropical non-indigenous species is leading to the “tropicalization” of Mediterranean fauna and flora as a result of warming and extreme heat...

Rezumat Water is a rare commodity in the Middle East that requires sustainable management for the welfare of the region. Climate change in the region because of the higher temperatures and more intense rainfall events is expected to further compound the pressure on the current water resources. These new conditions will require a new generation of...

Marine ecosystems: Despite covering only 0.82% of the ocean’s surface, the Mediterranean Sea supports up to 18% of all known marine species, with 21% being listed as vulnerable and 11% as endangered. The accelerated spread of tropical non-indigenous species is leading to the “tropicalization” of Mediterranean fauna and flora as a result of warming...

Mining in Cyprus resulted in a significant number of abandoned sulphide mines without any rehabilitation measures. The present study aims to describe and compare the environmental parameters in three such mines with respect to water chemistry, waste dumps geochemistry, slope-topography and plant growth. The mines under study are that of Kokkinopezo...

We present for the first time the environmental footprint (EF) of grapes following the methodology proposed by the EU and life cycle assessment (LCA). We used data from three different production systems, conventional high- or low-input and organic from vineyards on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The life cycle inventory (LCI) data were retrie...

We developed a framework to compare the similarities and differences in nature conservation between two highly biodiverse Mediterranean islands; Cyprus and Crete. We relied on a) literature review for the factors which have shaped the state of conservation affairs on the islands (e.g. institutional context) and b) the use of indicators to capture c...

Cork oak (Quercus suber) is a declining woodland species across the island of Sardinia, despite its former economic importance for wine production and its significance for biodiversity. In particular, cork oak forests (COFs) on the island have seen a 29% decrease in the past 45 years. A spatial GIS model was developed to determine suitability for t...

The rapid increase of transportation infrastructure during the recent decades has caused a number of effects on bird species, including collision mortality, habitat loss, fragmentation and noise. This paper investigates the effects of traffic noise and road-induced fragmentation on breeding bird richness in Cyprus. Cyprus, situated along one of the...

The rapid increase of transportation infrastructure during the recent decades has caused a number of effects on bird species, including collision mortality, habitat loss, fragmentation and noise. This paper investigates the effects of traffic noise and road-induced fragmentation on breeding bird richness in Cyprus. Cyprus, situated along one of the...

Ecosystems deliver a range of services that are important for human well-being. Although Ecosystem Services (ES) assessments have been carried out worldwide in different geographical areas, islands are still under-represented. This research presents the first set of indicators developed for Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services (M...

A FIRST EVALUATION OF THE CONSERVATION STATUS OF THE GLOBAL GYPSUM FLORA Francisco Javier Pérez García1 (fpgarcia@ual.es) Hossein Akhani, Hilda Flores Olvera, Latif Kurt, Juan Lorite, Michael Lyons, Fabian Martínez-Hernández, Antonio J. Mendoza-Fernández , M. Encarna Merlo, Michael J. Moore, Carmelo M. Musarella, Helga Ochoterena, Ebru Özdeniz, S...

The aim of the paper is to describe the development and implementation of an integrated framework for landscape sensitivity assessment in Cyprus, a biodiversity hotspot with high landscape diversity. Akamas peninsula, the western tip of the island covering an area of 230 km2, is under great pressure for development, notwithstanding it hosts 21 terr...

The effects of habitat fragmentation on species distribution are well documented. Measuring habitat connectivity is an important prerequisite for species conservation and management in fragmented landscapes. The aim of this study was to evaluate landscape connectivity in the region of Troodos massif, Cyprus for the distribution of the endangered Hi...

A review on the effect of management practices and landscape on vineyard biodiversity and the need of development of a biodiversity metric tool that will help growers and wine producers to follow a more sustainable production method.

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...

Report prepared for the objectives of the EnVeROS Intellectual Output 1 (IO1): WVC framework analysis/ Needs assessment report.

Biodiversity has a spatial basis, this is the reason why a geographical basis at a detailed scale is absolutely essential for this study. In the case of the study of gypsophily (i.e., the link between plants and gypsum soils) at a global scale, a cartography of gypsum outcrops worldwide is essential. In order to compile information on gypsum outcro...

Social-ecological systems in the Mediterranean Basin are characterised by high biodiversity and a prolonged cultural influence, leading to the co-evolution of these systems. The unique characteristics of Mediterranean social-ecological systems, current pressures leading to a decline in ecosystem services, and the need for coordinated action are rec...

High Nature Value Farmland systems (HNVf) in Europe are recognised for their importance for biodiversity conservation and their extent is one of the impact indicators in the CAP monitoring and evaluation framework for the 2014–2020 cycle. Due to differences in farming typologies and data availability between nations, a common methodology for identi...

Landscapes have long been viewed as complex, synthetic entities reflecting the human imprint upon the land. [...]

The cornerstone of EU nature conservation, the Natura 2000 (N2K) network is far from complete in many EU countries, including Cyprus, particularly where new datasets have become available. Thus, an important question in conservation biology is how new data can be incorporated in an effort to redesign N2K where appropriate. We analyse the efficacy o...

Citizens’ science is on the increase in conservation biology and so are observation systems which attempt to provide data on the impact of roads on wildlife particularly as a result of vehicle collisions (roadkills). The island of Cyprus, a global biodiversity hotspot, has seen a fast increase in road length and extent in the last 20 years. However...

Although road length and extent have dramatically increased in Cyprus by 88% over the last 20 years, this has not been followed by studies looking at the impacts of roads on biodiversity on the island, a global biodiversity hotspot. To address the lack of adequate information on road impacts on biodiversity, the Cyprus Roadkill Observation System (...

Terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems are connected via multiple biophysical and ecological processes. Identifying and quantifying links among ecosystems is necessary for the uptake of integrated conservation actions across realms. Such actions are particularly important for species using habitats in more than one realm during their daily...

The aim of the paper is to examine the variability of eastern Mediterranean landscapes using a common mapping framework relying on Landscape Character Mapping (LCM). LCM was adapted to the region’s specificities placing emphasis on the area’s coastal nature, landform variation, land use, in particular pastoral tradition, and settlement patterns, an...

Protected areas around the world are increasingly being recognized for their potential to protect various ecosystem services in addition to biodiversity. We carried out an ecosystem services (ES) assessment at the Rizoelia National Forest Park, a biodiversity hotspot in Cyprus. For ES assessment we used TESSA v.1.1 and an ES matrix-approach to map...

Invasive alien species cause major changes to ecosystem functioning and patterns of biodiversity, and the main factors involved in invasion success remain contested. Using the Mediterranean island of Crete, Greece as a case study, we suggest a framework for analyzing spatial data of alien species distributions, based on environmental predictors, ai...

Islands across the world have evolved at the interface between land and sea, thus comprising landscapes and seascapes. Many islands have also been influenced by anthropogenic factors, which have given rise to mosaics of anthromes (sensu Ellis and Ramankutty). These elements of landscapes, seascapes, and cultural impacts in varied proportions, gener...

Cumulative human impacts have led to the degradation of marine ecosystems and the decline of biodiversity in the European and contiguous seas. Effective conservation measures are urgently needed to reverse these trends. Conservation must entail societal choices, underpinned by human values and worldviews that differ between the countries bordering...

Water availability is the most important limiting factor for plant growth in Mediterranean ecosystems, where scare precipitation can drive vegetation to marginal conditions. Therefore, plants must make a conservative use of available water, exploit all possible water sources and even benefit from any water facilitation effects produced by closely a...

We aimed to determine the composition, structure and ecological processes of the vegetation of the coastal dunes with Juniperus spp. in Crete, Gavdos and Chrysi in the South Aegean, Greece, in order to apply sound habitat management and restoration. Vegetation composition, structure and zonation were investigated with plots and transects. Data from...

Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) has gone a long way since its early development in NW Europe. LCA should go beyond the simple characterisation of landscapes and must support reasonable judgements about the condition of the landscape, including its ecological integrity. Although some progress has been made in this direction, what still remains...