SCIENTIFIC TOPIC: SYSTEMATIZATION AND DISTRIBUTION MODELING OF ENDANGERED AND MOST DANGEROUS INVASIVE ANIMALS OF ARMENIA

It should be noted that the scientific topic was funded by the Science Committee within the framework of the contractual funding of scientific and technical activities as a result of the competition "Selection of applications for scientific topics in support of advanced research".

Head of the Scientific Program, Head of the Chair of Zoology of YSU Faculty of Biology, Professor Marine Arakelyan said, that the main goal of the research project is to create a database of climate-sensitive, endangered animals and a geographical database of those animals.

The endangered narrow-range animal species are sensitive to climate change and are reducing their ranges up to extinction from nature, while dangerous invasive species can cause
significant damage to the Armenian environment as a result of their introduction and widespread distribution under climate warming and anthropogenic pressure conditions.

The main goal of the project is the creation / maintenance of databases of model groups of invertebrates (mollusks, spiders, butterflies, moths) and poikilothermic vertebrates (fish, amphibians and reptiles), as well as the creation of Species Distribution Models with forecasts of the displacement of their ranges depending on climate change and human pressure. Studies of hybrid zones of animals are also relevant for Armenia as one of the centers of hybridogenetic speciation.

The results of the study are actual for the biodiversity conservation and decision-making to mitigate the effects of climate change and prediction of the penetration of the most dangerous alien species into the environment of Armenia.