EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Gavdos on the Edge

Gavdos Island
Chania Regional Unit, Crete, Greece

Explanation:  This looks like a bare and lonely place, but it is a most interesting dot of land.

We are flying over southern Greece, and below us zips by the island of Gavdos, surrounded by the Libyan Sea.  

Why do I call it "on the edge?"  Well, it is the southernmost island of Greece.  Just to the north is the far larger and more famous island of Crete.  Gavdos is, in fact, part of the Chania Regional Unit portion of Crete.  

Gavdos is also as far south as you can go in the European continent.  It's where Odysseus shipwrecked en route to Troy, according to Homer.  It is closer to Africa than to Athens!

The green on the island, visible in the photo here, is junipers and shrubs, but there is no fresh water on the island.  There is no source of power other than generators to supply the approximately 60 island residents with intermittent electricity.

Studies have been conducted on the paleontology of the island.  There is an important sea-level monitoring site on the island where the tides are small so that change in sea level is easier to determine.
 

 
Information:
    Delipetrou, P., D. Ghosn, G. Kazakis, P. Nyktas, E. Remoundou, and I.N. Vogiatzakis.  2015.  Vegetation dynamics of coastal dunes with Juniperis spp. in Crete, Gavdos and Chrysi Islands (Greece).  Ecologia Mediterranea 41(2):45-60.
    Drinia, H., A. Antonarakou, N. Tsaparas, and G. Kontakiotis.  2007.  Palaeoenvironmental conditions preceding the Messinian Salinity Crisis: A case study from Gavdos Island.  Geobios 40(3):251-265.
    Mertikas, S.P., E.C. Pavlis, P.G. Drakopoulos, K. Palamartchouk, and E. Koutroulis.  2003.  GAVDOS: A satellite radar altimeter calibration and sea-level monitoring site on the island of Gavdos, Greece.  Elsevier Oceanography Series 69:258-264.