Dr Leda Cai is a marine biologist/ecologist. She received her MMarBio, Masters of Marine Biology from Bangor University, UK and completed her PhD at the University of York, UK. Her PhD research focused on the coastal ecosystem restoration and more specifically, plant biodiversity and sediment physicochemical differences between natural and realigned (man-made) saltmarshes. Since completing her PhD she has focused on the marine biodiversity and ecology of Cyprus. She has worked on several projects, governmental and non, on monitoring marine biodiversity, impact assessments and baseline surveys. She has experience in ecological assessments of marine habitats and monitoring of fauna biodiversity through underwater visual census. Leda is also a qualified and experienced scuba diver, who worked on several field-based projects. Leda joined the team of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Center (MarCEC) at CMMI as an associate scientist.