The aim of my project is to develop a method to successfully link together disparate sources of available information and data to study and understand which factors influence most the species richness of birds in various areas of interest. For many areas, especially areas of high conservation priority, an enormous amount of information is already available which can be linked together (using the right tool) to give us a wider and deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms that influence the biodiversity of the region.

To test this hypothesis I used structural equation modeling (SEM) to link data from Kakamega Forest1 in order to study the effects of various socio-ecological factors on the bird species richness in twenty two different parts of the forest. Despite its rich avian diversity and its status as an Important Bird Area (IBA), the forest (which is Kenya’s only rainforest) is still highly threatened.

The same modeling approach is also used to study the factors that influence most the migratory birds found in Natura 2000 sites in Cyprus2, which were designated under EU’s Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC). Using available data such data on land use, vegetation cover, habitat diversities and human population densities, a path model is developed to identify and quantify the variables that affect most the observed species richness in thirty-eight different protected sites.

1. This part of the project is carried out in collaboration with BIOTA East Africa
2. This part of the project is carried out in collaboration with Frederick Research Centre, the Cyprus Department of Forests and BirdLife Cyprus.

The project is funded by the Research Promotion Foundation (PENEK/ENISX/0308/42) and supported by A.G Leventis Foundation.

Christos Mammides has received his Bachelor's degree from San Diego State University, California where he studied biology with emphasis in ecology and contributed to data collection for several conservation projects. After graduation he worked for a short term with BirdLife Cyprus in a project that aimed at recording illegal bird trapping sites in the island and estimating the number of birds captured.

In 2006 he completed his master's degree on Conservation Biology at Columbia University, New York. For his master's thesis he studied the effects of anthropogenic habitat disturbance and food supply on the population densities of three primate species in Kakamega Forest, Western Kenya.

During his studies he has taken several courses on conservation biology, statistical analysis and the use of computer software for conservation purposes (such as R, SPSS and Ecolab). Christos is a member of the Ecological Society of America, the British Ecological Society, the Society for Conservation Biology and a member of the international review panel for the Journal of African Ecology. He is also a fellow at the Conservation Science Institute and a member of the scientific team for the environment of the European Institute of Law, Science and Technology.

Contact details:

Nature Conservation Unit 
Frederick University
P.O.Box 24729, 1303
Nicosia, Cyprus.

E-mail:

c.mammides07 [at] imperial.ac.uk
mammides[at]yahoo.com