The geology of Greece is highly structurally complex due to its position between the European and African tectonic plates. Some of the oldest rocks in Greece are from the Paleozoic and are usually metamorphosed with no fossils. The Rhodope Massif spans the northern mainland, divided into amphibolite schist and gneiss, with comparatively recent granite intrusions from the Oligocene and Miocene. West of the Strymonas River is the Serbo-Macedonian Massif, covering the Chalkidiki Peninsula with thick marble and gneiss, with granite intrusions.

Natural resource geology

·         Asbestos: Occurs in joints in Western Macedonia and in the serpentinized edge of the Vourinos Massif

·         Antimony: Stibnite is found in Thrace and Macedonia, as well as in Devonian argillite veins on Chios island

·         Barite: Common in hydrothermal deposits and widely exported from the island of Mykonos for oil drilling. Also found on Kos and Polyvos with total reserves of several million tons.

·         Bauxite: Greece has over 1000 deposits particularly in the east-central part of the country, typically between limestone formations.

·         Bentonite: Several million tons of calcium-type bentonite is found on Kimolos and Milos and is often converted for higher swelling capacity by treating with sodium carbonate. Greece is the second largest bentonite producer after the United States.

·         Chromite: Hosted in peridotite, ophiolites and dunte. Near Vourinos is a deposit with 1.5 million tons of ore and an ancient mine in Thessalia extracted 500,000 tons by the 1990s.

·         Copper: The Chalkidiki Peninsula has 15 million tons of copper. Pyrite is common near East Peloponesus and disseminated copper sulfides are common in veins in Western Macedonia.

·         Iron: Greece has 200 small "soft" iron deposits and iron-nickel laterite 130 kilometers north of Athens with 200 million tons of ore

Hydrocarbon
 Onshore oil exploration began in 1938 and moved offshore in 1970. The Prinos Anticline offshore was found to contain oil under Miocene rocks. 

Editors: Moores, E.M., Fairbridge, Rhodes W. (Eds.)

More specifically regarding Greek islands.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256975462_Geology_of_the_Greek_Islands

 

The short-toed eagle (Circaetus gallicusis) also known as the short-toed snake eagle, is a medium sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. It’s found throughout the Mediterrenean basin, into Russia and the Middle East and parts of Asia.

This eagle is found in open cultivated plains, and stony deciduous scrub areas and foothills and semi-dessert areas. It forages in open habitats.

Pellet analysis of the species in in the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli National Park in northeastern Greece showed that  the  most numerous prey items were snakes, constituting 84% of the diet. More specifically Natrix natrix consisted of 88.9% of the adult’s diet. The short-toed eagle can be regarded as a specialist predator in snakes.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230753497_Feeding_habits_and_provisioning_rate_of_breeding_short-toed_eagles_Circaetus_gallicus_in_northeastern_Greece

example #2
Elaphe quatuorlineata-Microtus levis

The four lined snake (E. quatuorlineata)  also known as Bulgarian ratsnake,  is a member of the family Colubridae. It can reach 150 cm in length and in some cases 206 cm. It can hunt both on the ground and trees and they’re also well adapt swimmers. It hunts mainly rodents such as Microtus levis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-lined_snake
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/13454/115114533

Also known as dog roundworm, it is a worldwide distributed helminth parasite of dogs and other canids, with zoonotic potential for humans. 

It’s able to invade an extraordinaly wide range of hosts, from invertebrates and poultry through to mice and man; for all but the definitive species (canid) these represent intermediate hosts which can, through predation, allow the parasite to reach its final definitive host species. The larvae can enter a long term developmental arrest, allowing to remain inside an intermediate host and only reach adulthood when inside a canid species. It has a very high longetivity, in monkeys (lab) it remained in their tissues for 9 years in the larvae stage and was able to infect mice afterwards.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3611597/

Cuscuta europaea 

Also known as European dodder, it’s an obligate parasite with negligible chrlorophyll and leaves reduced to minute scales on a glabrous stem. The stems are yellowish, orange or red. It occurs over a considerable range of soils and climate and it has been recorded as occurring on a wide range of hosts too, with little apparent host specificity, though. Urtica dioica is noted as a particularly favoured host. 

Cuscuta species are propagated mainly by seed, though individual plants may spread vegetatively over many separate host plants. Once contact is established with the host phloem, Cuscuta becomes a powerful sink for metabolites, causing a severe drain on host resources and often completely preventing normal fruit development. The damage it causes can be as severe as total crop loss.

https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/17113  

In Greece there are an estimated 450 bears living in independent populations, one living in the Pindos mountains and the other in the Rhodope mountains. In recent years there has been consistent evidence of the presence of bears in the mountain axis of Vora-Olympos and Central Greece, even down to the mountainous Nafpaktia, an area where there have been no sightings in the last 70 years. Brown bears can be found in a wide variety of habitats including coastlines, forests and even semi- dessert areas. During the autumn season in Greece they can travel more than 180 km in search of food. 

They seem to have no altitudinal preferences.  In most of their range, brown bears generally seems to prefer semi-open country, with a scattering of vegetation that can allow them a resting spot during the day.
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41688/121229971
http://www.arcturos.gr/en/animals/bear/

Podarcis milensis

Also known as the Milos wall lizard, it has a body length no more than 6.5 cm and the tail is twice as long.  The male has a characteristic appearance with white, blue, light green or yellow spots on the side of their head and belly.  

This species is endemic to the Aegean islands of Greece, where it is restricted to the Milos archipelago (Milos, Kimolos, Polyaigos and Antimilos), the Ananes archipelago, Falkonera island and Velopoula island. It ranges from sea level up to 685m. It can be found on wetlands (inland),shrubland, artificial/terrestrial and rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks).

https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/17797/7482413#habitat-ecology

Athene noctua and Vipera ammodytes are both animals that can be found on the same areas and share the same food. More specifically, A. noctua is found in a variety of semi-open habitats, ranging from parkland, orchards and cultivated fields with hedges to rocky, semi-desert regions and steppes, and V .ammodytes can be found in Shrubland, Artificial/Terrestrial, Rocky areas (eg. inland cliffs, mountain peaks) and Forests. Even though those two species share somehow common habitats and their main prey is mice (Mus musculus) there are some differences in their biology that allows them to share this common food source. A. noctua is a nocturnal predator and V. ammodytes a diurnal, even though when the weather is hot enough, they do show some activity at night. Furthermore, V. ammodytes goes into brumation during winter time, so there’s one less predator for the owl to compete against. Finally, mice maintain high populations throughout the whole year, so there isn’t really a lack of prey for any of the predators mentioned above. 

·         Geographical position: located between Europe, Asia and Africa in Greece one can find representatives from all those continents

·         Geomorphologic characteristics: many islands and mountains that are great places for endemic species

·         Geological substrate: there is a great variety of maternal rocks and as a result there’s many different types of soil where many different plant species can grow

·         Climate: The quaternary glaciations greatly affected Europe’s fauna, and many animals found refuge in Greece during this period, where they remained

More specifically:

·         Fish: 110 species

·         Amphibian: 20 species

·         Reptiles: 59 species/117 subspecies

·         Birds: 442 species

·         Mammals: 116 species

·         Invertebrates: approximately 50.000 species


https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Constantin_Doukas/publication/284760575_The_mammals_of_the_Lower_Miocene_of_Aliveri_Island_of_Evia_Greece_Part_5_The_insectivores/links/580c9b3608aeef1bfeeb6487/The-mammals-of-the-Lower-Miocene-of-Aliveri-Island-of-Evia-Greece-Part-5-The-insectivores.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14634980601027855
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-1-4020-2854-0.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Giorgos_Catsadorakis/publication/327732869_The_vertebrate_animals_of_Samaria_National_Park_Crete_Greece/links/5ba61436299bf13e6043c284/The-vertebrate-animals-of-Samaria-National-Park-Crete-Greece.pdf

Flora

There are approximately 5.700 indigenous species in Greece. Once again, exact numbers are currently unknown.

·         Pteridophyte: 80 sp.

·         Spermatophytes: Pinophyta 24 sp., Angiosperms +/- 5.600 sp.

https://www.cbd.int/doc/world/gr/gr-nr-05-en.pdf
http://portal.cybertaxonomy.org/flora-greece/content

It stretches from Cabo Verde in the west to Jordan and Turkey in the east and from Italy in the north to Tunisia in the south. Greece is included. Although humans have been present in the area for thousands of years and the ecosystems reached an equilibrium long ago, this delicate balance is currently in danger.

Main threats:

·         Pressure on water resources

·         Forest fires

·         Pollution

·         Agricultural intensification and land abandonment

·         Infrastructure and residential development 

·         Transport infrastructure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV0Wev-lWhw

https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/mediterranean-basin
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.98467.x

Greece has a high number of endemic species, both animals and plants. As mentioned before, there are many factors that have contributed to this high percentage, such as geological, geomorphological, climate, geographical and substrate constitution. All those factors create an amazing heterogeny in habitats, which in time have even provided refuge during the Quaternary glaciations. Below there are lists and sites of endemic plants and animals.

http://lntreasures.com/greece.html
http://en.protothema.gr/animals-endemic-to-greece/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/215609294_Patterns_and_traits_of_the_endemic_plants_of_Greece
http://www.parnitha-np.gr/endemic_species.htm