Paraskevi Manolaki

AIAS, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies · Bioscience, Aarhus University, Denmark

Riparian corridors are among the most sensitive ecosystems in the Mediterranean as they are significantly altered by human interventions. In this study, we explored the composition patterns of the aquatic vegetation in 17 rivers of Cyprus. Hierarchical clustering and Detrended Correspondence Analysis were conducted in order to distinguish plant com...

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...

Arctic streams are highly sensitive to climate warming due to changes in water temperature and nutrient availability. Mosses are the dominant benthic primary producers in low-order streams in Greenland, and climate induced ecosystem alterations are expected to cause significant changes to their growth and productivity rates. However, the combined e...

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...

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...

Problems related to extensive macrophyte growth are widespread both in modified and man-made canals and streams, and in streams with natural morphology and rich vegetation. The weed cutting is a common management practice in order to reduce flood risk and enhance water conveyance. Although the short- and long-term impacts on the stream physical hab...

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...

Arctic terrestrial vegetation is responding to warming with higher biomass and productivity, but the effects for freshwater ecosystems are unclear. Biofilm extracellular enzymes are important mediators of organic matter processing in aquatic ecosystems, thus understanding how enzyme activities change with water temperature and organic matter availa...

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...

Constructed wetlands have become a widely used tool for reducing nutrient loading from agriculture drainage water running to aquatic ecosystems. To ensure a high nutrient removal efficiency, it is often suggested to use macrophytes to retain or remove nutrients via uptake and through the denitrifying biofilm. In Europe, Phragmites australis and Typ...

Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...

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...

Amphibious plants, living in land-water ecotones, have to cope with challenging and continuously changing growth conditions in their habitats with respect to nutrient and light availability. They have thus evolved a variety of mechanisms to tolerate and adapt to these changes. Therefore, the study of these plants is a major area of ecophysiology an...

Aquatic macrophytes grow abundantly in many lowland streams and play a key role in ecosystem functioning, such as nutrient retention. In this study, we performed a microcosm experiment to quantify and compare the contribution of two freshwater macrophyte growth forms to nutrient cycling. We measured and compared inorganic nitrogen (NH4–N and NO3–N)...

Despite increasing interest in hydrological effects on riverine ecosystems, few studies have documented the impact of hydrology on biofilm community functions, and those existing have typically focused on annual-based hydrological indices. In this study, we conducted monthly samplings during a year in five lowland streams with different flow regime...

Fluvial riparian vegetation (RV) links fluvial and terrestrial ecosystems. It is under significant pressure from anthropogenic activities, and, therefore, the management and restoration of RV are increasingly important worldwide. RV has been investigated from different perspectives, so knowledge on its structure and function is widely distributed....

Fluvial riparian vegetation (RV) links fluvial and terrestrial ecosystems. It is under significant pressure from anthropogenic activities, and, therefore, the management and restoration of RV are increasingly important worldwide. RV has been investigated from different perspectives, so knowledge on its structure and function is widely distributed....

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...

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...

Macrophytes have a crucial impact on stream functioning. However, there is a significant gap of knowledge about how hydromorphological fluctuations affect their structural and functional responses in southern Mediterranean streams. In this study, we investigated the impact of hydromorphology on macrophyte stream assemblages in Cyprus and analysed t...

Aquatic bryophytes of brooks in Greenland

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...

Mediterranean watercourses are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide, being increasingly important to understand environmental drivers of biotic assemblages. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive picture of bryophyte communities in Mediterranean rivers and to determine the environmental factors that influence their distribution. We used f...

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...

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...

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...

Following its application in Northern Europe, Landscape Character Assessment has also been implemented in Euro-Mediterranean countries as a tool for classifying, describing and assessing landscapes. Many landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area are similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Euro...

Following its application in Northern Europe, Landscape Character Assessment has also been implemented in Euro-Mediterranean countries as a tool for classifying, describing and assessing landscapes. Many landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area are similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Euro...

Following its application in Northern Europe, Landscape Character Assessment has also been implemented in Euro-Mediterranean countries as a tool for classifying, describing and assessing landscapes. Many landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area are similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Euro...

Following its application in Northern Europe, Landscape Character Assessment has also been implemented in Euro-Mediterranean countries as a tool for classifying, describing and assessing landscapes. Many landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area are similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Euro...

Following its application in Northern Europe, Landscape Character Assessment has also been implemented in Euro-Mediterranean countries as a tool for classifying, describing and assessing landscapes. Many landscape classifications employed in the Euro-Mediterranean area are similar in philosophy and application to the ones developed in Northern Euro...

Rivers in semi-arid climates are extremely sensitive to hydrological and anthropogenic pressures. However, they have been poorly studied, especially in east Mediterranean countries. In Cyprus, the freshwater flora of fluvial corridors has not been extensively investigated. In this paper, an updated inventory of aquatic and riparian flora from perma...

The occurrence of aquatic plants was analysed in a medium-sized river in Greece. There were three objectives. The first was to examine the macrophyte assemblage structure along the river. The identification and hierarchical structure of aquatic plant assemblages were analyzed using Bray–Curtis analysis. Taxa primarily responsible for the difference...

Abstract: Protected areas and national parks around the world are increasingly being recognized for their potential to protect various ecosystem services and ensure their continuous flow. The Natura 2000 site “Rizoelia National Forest Park” –CY6000006 is a peri-urban Natura 2000 site located at the SE of Cyprus near the town of Larnaca. The area...

The added pressures of pollution, land use and climate change exert a varying degree of stress on the world’s freshwater ecosystems. Whereas levels of air-borne pollution in many cases are decreasing, the pressure from land use- and climate change are likely to worsen in the future. Specifically, for Mediterranean conditions, the combination of inc...

We studied the aquatic macrophyte assemblage structure along a Mediterranean lotic ecosystem from the upper reaches to the most downstream areas. We examined how environmental characteristics affect the composition and abundance of macrophyte communities spatially and temporally. Field survey data were collected from the Acheron river catchment, be...

In Greece, as in many other Mediterranean countries, there is a lack of information enabling the use of aquatic macrophytes as biological indicators of the water trophic status. This research aimed to investigate the trophic preferences of the aquatic macrophyte assemblages encountered in selected standing water bodies of a lowland river basin of w...

This work exposes a new methodological approach to solve the problem of intercalibrating river quality national methods when a common metric is lacking and most of countries share the same WFD-common assessment method. The approach herein presented was applied to highly-seasonal rivers of the Mediterranean Geographical Intercalibration Group (MedGI...

Mediterranean-type rivers are amongst the most hydrologically dynamic freshwater ecosystems, and hold complex plant communities adapted to the high intra and inter-annual variation of the hydrological regime, and resilient to flow disturbances. The present work aims to investigate the variation of floristic composition and of the functional structu...

The Mediterranean Rivers Geographic Intercalibration Group developed a 3-step approach that allowed the characterization of the best available condition of four Mediterranean common stream types, regarding organic contamination and nutrients, hydrological and morphological alterations and land use. For this purpose, a common database composed of 7...

River plants in Mediterranean type-rivers form dynamic assemblages adapted to the high seasonal and multiannual variability of the hydrological regime. This work aims to investigate plant species turnover and functional variation along longitudinal gradients of the Mediterranean Basin having different levels of flow permanency and ecological qualit...

Although rivers and riparian zone consists an important feature of the landscape, surveying aquatic and riparian flora has rarely been implemented in Greece. In this paper an updated inventory of aquatic and riparian species from the rivers Acheron and Louros and the adjacent Zirou Lake, located in Western Greece, is presented. The study area is pa...