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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. Projected climate, land-use and socio-economic change will impact on islands’ biodiversity, ecosystem services and, in turn, on the quality of life of island inhabitants. Even if the existing methods can adequately predict the abovementioned changes of the larger islands, this is not the case for small and medium-size islands, where there is a need for refinement. Although ecosystem services (ES) assessments have been carried out worldwide in different geographical areas, islands are still under-represented. Despite the recognised islands’ importance and vulnerability, efforts to date have focused solely on the pressures they face. Still, we know little about ES supply, flow and demand and their spatio-temporal variability, whilst integrated approaches that consider ES cross-island realms (terrestrial, marine and their interface) remain scarce. Even more under-represented are studies that explore the telecoupled relationship amongst islands and their mainland counterparts. Moreover, the current conceptual approaches guiding ES mapping and assessment need further refinement to account for the complex manifestations of nature and culture arising from peoples’ interaction with island spaces. This paper discusses the creation of a platform for coordinated interdisciplinary research on several aspects of mapping and assessment of ES in small and medium European islands in order to synthesise and strengthen the knowledge base for conservation of island realms and contribute to their sustainable development.

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 (= reptiles and amphibians) Atlas has been developed. The Atlas constitutes the first effort to collect all existing locality data of the herpetofauna species of the island (i.e. scientific reports, books, journals, grey literature) in a single database and simultaneously promote a citizen-science approach in order to collect and constantly update the database with new records.The website of the Atlas contains basic educational and informational material for the public, along with the visibility tool of the database in the form of occurrence maps, in 5 km x 5 km grid cells, openly available for download in kmz format. The Atlas is a powerful tool for citizens, scientists and decision-makers, aiming to contribute to the study and conservation of the reptile and amphibian species of Cyprus. In this short communication, we give details on the structure of the Atlas.

Summary: The study of biological form is a vital goal of evolutionary biology and functional morphology. We review an emerging set of methods that allow scientists to create and study accurate 3D models of living organisms and animate those models for biomechanical and fluid dynamic analyses. The methods for creating such models include 3D photogrammetry, laser and CT scanning, and 3D software. New multi-camera devices can be used to create accurate 3D models of living animals in the wild and captivity. New websites and virtual reality/augmented reality devices now enable the visualization and sharing of these data. We provide examples of these approaches for animals ranging from large whales to lizards and show applications for several areas: Natural history collections; body condition/scaling, bioinspired robotics, computational fluids dynamics (CFD), machine learning, and education. We provide two datasets to demonstrate the efficacy of CFD and machine learning approaches and conclude with a prospectus.

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 (MAES) provided by the ecosystems of Cyprus, as required by the EU Biodiversity Strategy, along with the rationale behind the selection criteria. In total, 269 potential indicators were assessed in terms of data availability at the national/subnational level and their suitability for MAES and were classified using a "traffic light" system on the basis of overall suitability (i.e. conceptually and in terms of datasets). The results showed that 89 indicators (Green indicators) can be directly used for assessing ES in Cyprus. Amongst these 89 Green indicators, 28 are considered to be new additions to the EU MAES list, since they were proposed solely for Cyprus ecosystems, as a result of consultation with local stakeholders. Provisioning and cultural services could be adequately mapped, but lack of data was observed for several regulating services (e.g. erosion, pollution, carbon sequestration). Not all Green indicators, identified herein, are relevant for assessing ES provided by ecosystems in Cyprus, whereas Green indicators which measure similar ES might be redundant. For a given geographical context, there might be relevant (and important) indicators which are not included in the MAES list and this is why consultation with stakeholders is advisable. Knowledge gaps and needs for further improving MAES on the island are also discussed.

The critically endangered Cyprus grass snake (Natrix natrix cypriaca) has been studied for the past 25 years. Although the need for a complete survey on the distribution of its population, outside the strict boundaries of the known mountainous localities, had been stressed, such an effort has not been conducted to date. In this study, we used a rapid survey approach to investigate possible sightings of the species upstream of the known distribution in the Troodos Mountains. We are presenting evidence from 13 sightings of the species that expand the previously known distribution in Cyprus by nearly 70%. This is the first time that new localities for the critically endangered N. n. cypriaca have been reported since the rediscovery of the species in 1992 and the extensive work that followed. Almost all new localities were discovered outside of the currently known species distribution, while individuals were found, for the first time, within the Natura 2000 site of Dasos Machaira (CY2000004) with indications of healthy populations in the area. New localities were recorded within watersheds of the Pediaios and Gialias Rivers, the first sightings outside of Serrachis watershed, indicating an even broader distribution of the species in the Troodos region. The importance of sparse springs within systems of ephemeral streams is highlighted as an exceptional niche for the population in the region. We are discussing the importance of our findings for the conservation of the species and propose targeted conservation actions that will highly improve connectivity of the populations in the region. We underline the necessity of expanding the research on this critically endangered subspecies, based on current findings, so as to fully comprehend its ecology and distribution range in the region.

The degradation of natural wetlands has significant effects on the ecosystem services they provide and the biodiversity they sustain. Under certain conditions, these negative effects can be mitigated by the presence of artificial wetlands. However, the conservation value of artificial wetlands needs to be explored further. In addition, it is unclear how certain anthropogenic variables, such as road networks and hunting reserves (i.e., areas where hunting of birds is prohibited) affect biodiversity in both artificial and natural wetlands. Here, we use data from thirteen artificial and six natural wetlands in Cyprus, to assess their similarities in bird species diversity and composition, and to quantify the relationship between species diversity and the density of road networks, hunting reserves, wetland size, and wetland depth. We found that while on average natural wetlands have more species and support higher abundances, certain artificial wetlands have the potential to support similarly diverse communities. Overall, regardless of the type, larger wetlands, with shallower waters tend to be more biodiverse. The same is true for wetlands surrounded by a higher percentage of hunting reserves and a lower density of road networks, albeit the effect of road networks was weaker. We conclude, from our results, that although the conservation value of natural wetlands is higher, artificial wetlands have the potential to play a complimentary role in the conservation of bird communities, assuming those wetlands have the right characteristics (e.g., in terms of size and depth) and assuming that the disturbances resulting from high-impact human-activities (e.g., hunting) are minimized.