Papers by Iliana Polychroni
<p>Climate and weather are significant factors in planning to visit a touri... more <p>Climate and weather are significant factors in planning to visit a touristic destination, especially taking into consideration the global warming. In this respect, touristic areas will be significantly affected by the potential adverse effects of climate change. This is the case of the Mediterranean which is considered one of the most vulnerable regions in global climate change, regarding the observed but also the expected future thermal risk. The goal of this study is to highlight the bioclimatic conditions anticipated to prevail in the eastern Mediterranean, studying five touristic destinations; namely, Heraklion, Crete Island (Greece), Antalya (Turkey), Limassol (Cyprus), Valletta (Malta) and Cairo (Egypt).</p><p>One of the most popular and widely applied human thermal index, the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET), based on human energy balance, is utilized to quantify the regime of present and simulated future bioclimatic conditions. Air temperature, humidity, wind speed and global solar radiation (estimated at 1.1m where is the gravity center of the human body and builds the reference level for human biometeorological studies) are the parameters needed for the assessment of PET, using the RayMan model. The meteorological datasets concern 3-hour data from the SMHI RCA4 regional climate model (Rossby Center, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrkoping Sweden, spatial analysis 11 km), for the historical period 1971-2000 (reference period), as well as for the periods 2021-2050 and 2071-2100 under the two Representative Concentration Pathways, RCP4.5 (intermediate) and RCP8.5 (extreme).</p><p>As far as the historical period is concerned, the findings of the analysis showed that Heraklion, Crete Island, appears the most favorable bioclimatic conditions at midday (UTC 12:00), followed by Limassol and Malta, while Cairo and Antalya show high frequency and duration of strong/extreme heat stress within the year. Regarding evening hours (UTC 21:00) during summertime, there is a slight cold stress/thermal comfort in Heraklion and Malta, followed by Limassol, Antalya and Cairo with worse bioclimatic conditions.</p><p>Based on climate model simulations for 2021-2050 (near future) and 2071-2100 (far future) under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, for midday (UTC 12:00), Heraklion, Crete Island depicts the best bioclimatic conditions, which can be attributed to the increased frequency and intensity of the Etesians winds, blowing during the summer period of the year contributing to the mitigation of the strong/extreme heat stress. The frequency and the duration of thermal comfort in the evening (UTC 21:00) is expected to increase for both RCPs. Malta shows similar bioclimatic behavior to Heraklion during evening hours, followed by Limassol, Antalya and Cairo, where the light/moderate heat stress occurs with increasing frequency and seasonality.</p><p>The results of the bioclimatic analysis will help in the management/dissemination of climate information for tourism purposes. In addition, the methodology used, based on bioclimatic (PET) diagrams, can provide detailed information in order to assess and quantify the climate change impacts on the tourism potential in the eastern Mediterranean.</p>
Atmosphere, 2021
Olive and vine cultivations are two of the most important crops in Europe, yielding high quality ... more Olive and vine cultivations are two of the most important crops in Europe, yielding high quality and value food products. The climate change over the Balkans may elevate the agroecological pressure for the established crops and shift their cultivations areas. One of the widely-used agroclimatic indices is the growing degree days (GDD) which accumulates the necessary thermal units for the selected crops. Despite the advances on the agroclimatic research, there are few available methods for spatiotemporal estimation of this useful index. So, this research is focused on the construction of simple and reliable equations for the calculation and projection of olive and vine cultivations’ GDD over the Balkans. The models’ input parameters are the time, the altitude, the distance from the seashore, and the latitude. Its assembly is made by the extracted spatial data, combined with the Agri4Cast dataset for the period of 1980 to 2018 incorporating the regional climate change trend. The resul...
The Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION™ sequencer holds the capability to generate long amplicon... more The Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION™ sequencer holds the capability to generate long amplicon reads; however, only a small amount of information is available regarding methodological approaches and the ability to identify a broad diversity of fungal taxa. To assess capabilities, three fungal mock communities were sequenced, each of which had varying ratios of 16 taxa. The data were processed through our selected pipeline. The MinION recovered all mock community members, when mixed at equal ratios. When a taxon was represented at a lower ratio, it was not recovered or decreased in relative abundance. Despite high error rates, highly accurate consensus sequences can be derived. This methodological approach identified all mock community taxa, demonstrating the MinION can be used as a practical alternative to profile fungal communities. METHOD SUMMARY Genomic DNA from 16 diverse fungal taxa was extracted from fungal sporocarps and fungal cultures isolated directly from roots and leaves. The identities of species were confirmed using Sanger sequencing, and then mixed together at varying ratios to create three fungal mock communities. The mock communities were amplified using tagged primers ITS1f-Kyo and LR3-I, and then processed through library preparation following Oxford's barcoding and 1D ligation sequencing protocols, respectively. The raw data were basecalled through Oxford's Albacore software, and then the data were processed through a pipeline that calculates a highly accurate consensus sequence from operational taxonomical units.
International Journal of Biometeorology, 2020
Mt. Ainos in Kefalonia Island, Greece, hosts a large variety of plant species, some of them endem... more Mt. Ainos in Kefalonia Island, Greece, hosts a large variety of plant species, some of them endemic to the region. Because of its rich biodiversity, a large portion of the mountain area is designated as National Park and is protected from human activities such as hunting or logging. Therefore, the area presents a lot of opportunities for ecotourist activities, such as trekking, birdwatching, and mountain climbing. In order to estimate its touristic activities potential, it is essential to assess the mountain’s biometeorological conditions. To achieve that, the human thermal index PET (physiologically equivalent temperature) was used, which is based on a human energy balance model. However, it is difficult to get the specific meteorological data over mountainous areas (air temperature, humidity, wind speed, and global solar radiation), appropriate as input variables for PET modeling. In order to overcome this limitation, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were developed for the estimation of PET index in ten sites within the Ainos National Park. In the process, the spatiotemporal distributions of the PET thermal index were illustrated, taking into consideration the ANN modeling. The findings of the performed analysis shed light that Mt. Ainos offers the greatest touristic opportunities from May to September, when thermal comfort conditions appear. The study also proves that the highest frequency of thermal comfort appears within the aforementioned time period over the highest altitudes, while on the contrary, slightly warm class appears as the altitude decreases on both sides of the mountain.
Environment, Development and Sustainability, 2020
In the first part, this work reports that during the global “anthropopause” period, that was impo... more In the first part, this work reports that during the global “anthropopause” period, that was imposed in March and April 2020 for limiting the spread of COVID-19, the concentrations of basic air pollutants over Europe were reduced by up to 70%. During May and June, the gradual lift of the stringent measures resulted in the recovery of these reductions with pollution concentrations approaching the levels before the lockdown by the end of June 2020. In the second part, this work examines the alleged correlations between the reported cases of COVID-19 and temperature, humidity and particulate matter for March and April 2020 in Europe. It was found that decreasing temperatures and relative humidity with increasing concentrations of particulate matter are correlated with an increase in the number of reported cases during these 2 months. However, when these calculations were repeated for May and June, we found a remarkable drop in the significance of the correlations which leads us to ques...
Towards the investigation and further understanding of the development and propagation of Medican... more Towards the investigation and further understanding of the development and propagation of Medicanes, this study explores the forecasting capability of WRF model in case of cyclone “Cleopatra” which affected with extreme rainfall and strong winds Sardinia and Calabria, Italy, in November 2013. This cyclone was unusual in that it developed a warm core but did not fulfill its transformation into a tropical-like cyclone because its core did not expand high enough in the tropospnere. The ERA5 reanalysis dataset was dynamically downscaled from 31 km spatial horizontal resolution to 9 km using WRF model. The methodology consists of; firstly, an extensive physical parameterization schemes sensitivity test and consequently, a short-range ensemble forecasting implementation based on the highest statistical scored physics configuration. All simulation results were validated against surface observations and remote sensing products. Subsequently, the modeled cyclone trajectorie...
International Journal of Biometeorology, 2016
The objective of this research is to assess and analyze the biometeorological perception in compl... more The objective of this research is to assess and analyze the biometeorological perception in complex microenvironments in the Athens University Campus (AUC) using urban micromodels, such as RayMan. The human thermal sensation in such a place was considered of great significance due to the great gathering of student body and staff of the University. The quantification of the biometeorological conditions was succeeded by the estimation of the physiologically equivalent temperature (PET), which is a biometeorological index based on the human energy balance. We carried out, on one hand, field measurements of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and global solar irradiance for different sites (building atrium, open area, and green atrium) of the examined microurban environment in order to calculate PET during January-July 2013. Additionally, on the other hand, PET modeling was performed using different sky-view factors and was compared to a reference site (meteorological station of Laboratory of Climatology and Atmospheric Environment, University of Athens). The global radiation was transferred to the examined sites with the RayMan model, which considers the sky-view factors for the adaptation of the radiation fluxes to simple and complex environments. The results of this study reveal the crucial importance of the existence of trees and green cover in a complex environment, as a factor that could be the solution to the efforts of stake holders in order to mitigate strong heat stress and improve people's living quality in urban areas.
ABSTRACT: The objective of this research is to assess and analyze the bioclimatic conditions in h... more ABSTRACT: The objective of this research is to assess and analyze the bioclimatic conditions in human thermal bioclimatic conditions in the Athens University Campus (AUC) using urban micro models such as RayMan. The quantification of human thermal sensation in such a place was considered of great significance due to the great gathering of student body and members of University. The quantification of the bioclimatic conditions was succeeded by the estimation of the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET), which is a bio-climatological index based on the human energy balance. We made field measurements of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and total solar irradiance, for different sites of the examined micro urban environment (site 1: open area, site 2: building atrium, site 3: green atrium), in order to calculate PET, during January – July 2013. Additionally, the calculations were done by different sky view factors, and compared to a reference site (site 4: Meteorolo...
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Papers by Iliana Polychroni