The Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity: The Ecological Consequences of Invasive Species in Greece

Greece is located between parallels 340 and 420 of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, bordering the eastern Mediterranean. The country covers an area of about 131,000 km, the coastline of which extends to 13,676 km and it corresponds to half of the total Mediterranean coastline. The Greek islands are estimated at 2500 from which only 200 are inhabited. The coastal zone includes 85% of the population, 80% of the industry, 90% of the tourism, much of the agriculture and almost all fisheries and aquaculture. A comparison between Greece and Euro-area, follows in Table 1. The climate of Greece is Mediterranean with mild, rainy winters, relatively warm and dry summers and plenty of sunshine throughout most of the year. Various regions of Greece are characterized by a great variety of climate subtypes, always within the Mediterranean climate. This is mainly due to the topography of the country which has great elevation differences as there are high mountains along the central country. This fact causes significant climatic differences. For example, Eastern Greece has dry climate conditions whereas Northern and Western part of the country is quite humid. It is a fact that big climatic differences still occur in places that are a short distance apart. This creates a special and unique area of interest appearing rarely even in a global scale.