Energy, Environment and Water Research Center

Energy, Environment and Water Research Center

Overview

EMEDZOO is a Cyprus RPF Postdoctoral Fellowship project that focuses on zooplankton, small herbivorous and carnivorous animals that support fisheries production and which respond rapidly to large-scale environmental perturbations in the Eastern Mediterranean (EMED).  Despite the importance of zooplankton in marine food webs and their significant potential as “climate change indicator species”, very little information is known concerning zooplankton populations in the EMED.  For example, in Cyprus coastal waters no records of zooplankton populations are known to exist.  Thus EMEDZOO will conduct the first assessment of Cyprus zooplankton populations, the baseline information necessary for future climate change impact studies involving zooplankton in Cyprus waters.  In addition EMEDZOO will establish the at-sea biological oceanographic expertise needed to initiate such a climate change assessment program in Cyprus, and will additionally provide basic equipment for such a program.