The Cyprus Herp Atlas: An initiative for systematic recording of amphibian and reptile occurrences 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 (= 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.

Digitizing Wildlife: The Case of a Reptile 3-D Virtual Museum.

In this article, we design and develop a 3-D virtual museum with holistic metadata documentation and a variety of reptile behaviors and movements. First, we reconstruct the reptile's 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, accelerometers, and RGB-vision cameras; these movements are then segmented and annotated to various behaviors. The 3-D environment, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) functionalities of our online repository serve as tools for interactively educating the public on animals, which are difficult to observe and study in their natural environment. It also reveals important information regarding animals' intangible characteristics (e.g., behavior), that is critical for the preservation of wildlife. Our museum is publicly accessible, enabling motion data reusability, and facilitating learning applications through gamification. We conducted a user study that confirms the naturalness and realism of our reptiles, along with the ease of use and usefulness of our museum.

Native plants for the remediation of abandoned sulphide mines in Cyprus: A preliminary assessment.

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 Kokkinopezoula, North and South Mathiatis located at the northeast of the Troodos massif. A synopsis of the previous studies conducted for the above-mentioned mines is presented, which includes water and soil samples analyses. Although, in these areas environmental degradation is reported, there are some plants which grow naturally. Therefore, a preliminary attempt to report these plants is conducted, while remediation options presented in the literature including technosols, revegetation, phytoremediation and phytostabilization are proposed. Potential use of native plants such as Phragmites australis, Tamarix smyrnensis, Poaceae, Pinus brutia and Schoenus nigricans Poaceace could be applied for phytoremediation of the sulphide mines in Cyprus. These plants seem to have great strength at low pH values and high metal content in contaminated soils and water. The three mines under study are also compared with three other old mines located in the broader area of Cyprus; that of Xeros, Limni and Skouriotissa, which operated under similar climatic conditions. By improving abandoned mines environment with technosols, the action of native plants will be enhanced and thus work towards a successful phytoremediation treatment, resulting in the minimization of future pollutants generated by the solid waste dumps.