Role in CaRe-GR
Leads WP3 (Assessing the Ecological Status of Reefs in Greece); active in reef biodiversity monitoring, citizen-science implementation, ecological assessment, and AI-assisted benthic image analysis.
Biography
Maria Zotou is an Oceanographer and PhD candidate in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of the Aegean, specialising in applied Marine Ecology, including: marine biodiversity monitoring, underwater ecological assessment, citizen science, and the integration of artificial intelligence into marine ecology. Her doctoral research focuses on empowering marine monitoring through AI-driven approaches and citizen-science methodologies for large-scale ecological assessments.
Within the CaRe-GR project, she leads key activities under WP3 “Assessing the Ecological Status of Reefs in Greece,” coordinating extensive underwater field surveys across the Greek seas using SCUBA-based ecological monitoring protocols, including ECOfast and photoquadrat sampling. Her work contributes to the collection and analysis of large-scale biodiversity datasets for the national assessment of reef ecological status. She is also responsible for developing the citizen-science initiative, which aims to expand standardised reef biodiversity monitoring through trained volunteer divers.
Her expertise includes underwater ecological surveys, ecological quality indices (e.g. ECOfast, reefEBQI), benthic image analysis, GIS applications, species distribution analyses, and AI-based annotation of benthic communities photoquadrats. She is trained as a scientific diver. She has participated in 12 national and European research projects and has co-authored 10 peer-reviewed publications on Mediterranean marine biodiversity, invasive species, conservation biology, and AI applications in marine ecological monitoring.