Projects

Assessment of endangered grassland habitats in Bulgaria through population-genetic research of model insect groups
Project duration: 2019 - 2024
Keywords: Balkan Peninsula, grasslands, indicators, genetic diversity, ecological niche, orthopterans, lepidopterans
Caves as a reservoir for novel and reoccurring zoonoses - ecological monitoring and metagenomic analysis in real time
Project duration: 2021 - 2025
Keywords: Bulgaria, Caves, microbiome, bats, zoonoses, Balkan Peninsula, shotgun genome sequencing
Distributed Research Infrastructure “Bulgarian Network for Long-Term Ecosystem Research”
(LTER-BG)
Project duration: 2020 - 2027
Keywords: European Long-Term Ecosystem Research Network (eLTER), biodiversity, socio-ecological research, standard observations (SOs)
DNA metabarcoding assessment of the Grey Plover’s (Pluvialis squatarola) diet in relation to its feeding preferences and endoparasite (helminth) infestation during spring and autumn migration on the western Black Sea coast, Bulgaria
Project duration: 2024
Keywords: shorebirds, waders, diet composition, feeding preferences, DNA metabarcoding, faecal analysis, grey plover, black-bellied plover, Pluvialis squatarola, coastal food webs, Bulgarian Black Seа
Fostering plant biodiversity research capacity in Bulgaria through scientific excellence in DNA barcoding and metabarcoding“
(BULCode)
Project duration: 2020 - 2023
Keywords: DNA barcoding, endemic species, Galanthus, Crocus, Colletotrichum, Bulgaria
Harnessing megafauna for accelerating sustainability in the Eastern Rhodopes pastoral social-ecological system
(HARM)
Project duration: 2022 - 2023
Keywords: Bulgaria, DNA metabarcoding diet analysis, trophic interactions, herbivory, niche partitioning, trophic rewilding, European bison
Molecular tool for identification of parasitic worms of birds from natural ecosystems - development and validation
(HELMCODE)
Project duration: 2023 - 2026
Keywords: Bulgaria, Helminth parasites, Trematoda, Cestoda, Acanthocephala, Nematoda, birds, diagnostics, barcoding, metabarcoding
Phylogeographic routes and barriers between the Balkans, Carpathians and Asia Minor: a combined evolutionary-ecological study on a model insect group (Insecta: Orthoptera: Barbitistini)
Project duration: 2017 - 2023
Keywords: orthopterans, molecular phylogeny, evolution, bioacoustics, Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia
Speciation in a rapidly changing environment. Comparative phylogeographic study of the Eastern Mediterranean terrestrial fauna
Project duration: 2021 - 2024
Keywords: ecological niche, orthopterans, speciation, reptiles, mitochondrial DNA
Study on selected nematode taxa of the orders Mononchida and Dorylaimida from Vietnam and Bulgaria
Project duration: 2023 - 2024
Keywords: Bulgaria, Mononchida, Vietnam, methods, orders, Dorylaimida, integrative approach – morphology and DNA based methods methods