News

We welcome Cryssa Papadaki, a new visiting Researcher at our centre, supervised by Dr Eleni Matechou, on statistical ecology approaches for analyzing eDNA-derived biodiversity datasets from freshwater ecosystems of the Aegean islands. This work focuses on Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs), community ecology, biodiversity–environment relationships, and the application of ecological statistics to DNA-based biodiversity monitoring data.
Chryssa Papadaki is a PhD candidate at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, based at the Molecular Ecology Laboratory (UAMECO). Her research focuses on the application of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding for biodiversity assessment and ecological monitoring in freshwater ecosystems. In particular, she investigates macroinvertebrate communities across Mediterranean wetlands of the Aegean archipelago and alpine lakes in Greece, combining molecular approaches with ecological, biogeographical, and statistical analyses.
Her broader research interests include molecular ecology, freshwater biodiversity, conservation genetics, phylogeography, bioinformatics, and community ecology. She is particularly interested in integrating eDNA-based approaches with ecological statistics and species distribution modelling to better understand biodiversity patterns and species–environment relationships across spatially complex ecosystems.
She is also a Visiting Researcher at University College London within the Nature Counts Research Group, where she contributes to research on airborne biodiversity monitoring and pollinator–plant interactions under the supervision of Dr Joanne Littlefair.
These visiting research appointments are supported through the Greek–British short-term mobility program for PhD and Master's students, funded by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) and the British Council Greece.