Riinu Rannap (born 23 October 1966) is an Estonian zoologist who studies amphibians and whose research focuses on protecting amphibians and their wetland habitats.
Her father was the writer Jaan Rannap and her cousin is the composer and pianist Rein Rannap. From 1985 to 1990, she attended the University of Tartu, Faculty of Biology and Geography, and from 2005 to 2009, she completed her doctoral studies at the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences at the same university.
Beginning in 1997, Rannap worked for several years at the Ministry of the Environment before joining the staff at the University of Tartu in 2008 as a specialist and then as a researcher before becoming a faculty member.
Rannap's Master's research concerned the Natterjack Toad (Bufo calamita), an amphibian native to the sandy areas of Estonia and Europe, distinguished by a yellow line down its back, as well as a loud mating call. Her doctoral dissertation was titled: Impacts of habitat loss and restoration on amphibian populations.
Her research has shown that in Estonia during the Soviet era, land use changed with increased forest plantings, more pollution from field runoff from agriculture and unfiltered waste from urban areas spilling into waterways. The result was habitat loss, not only for the Natterjack Toad but also for meadow birds, because they lay their eggs in those areas. These animals are afraid of forests, and they need vast open wetlands; they search for food in pools and wet areas. She concluded that "by the end of the 1990s, we had just 20 populations left of the Natterjack Toad in Estonia, a species that once thrived in the coastal areas of Estonia."
At the University of Tartu, Rannap is chair of Natural Resources and Associate Professor of Wetland Ecology. She focuses her primary research on organisms associated with small water bodies â amphibians and aquatic macroinvertebrates, their habitat, their geographical variability, colonization of novel ecosystems and opportunities for habitat restoration.