Lisa Mandle
Lead scientist
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Bio
Lisa Mandle (she/her) is Director of Science-Software Integration and a Lead Scientist with the Natural Capital Project. She works to make ecosystem service science accessible and actionable through NatCap’s data and software, overseeing our software team. Her research sheds light on how land management and infrastructure development affect ecosystem services, social equity, and human health. Lisa works with governments, multi-lateral development banks, and non-governmental organizations to incorporate this understanding into policy and finance, particularly in Latin America and Asia. She is also lead editor of the book Green Growth That Works, which provides a practical guide to policy and finance mechanisms from around the world for securing benefits from nature.
Academic Appointments
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Senior Research Scientist, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
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Academic Research Staff, Woods Research Natural Capital Project
Professional Education
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Ph.D., University of Hawaii Manoa, Botany (Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology)
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A.B./Sc.B., Brown University, Anthropology and Biology
All Publications
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Increasing decision relevance of ecosystem service science
NATURE SUSTAINABILITY
2020
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41893-020-00625-y
View details for Web of Science ID 000577035900003
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Global modeling of nature's contributions to people.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
2019; 366 (6462): 255–58
Abstract
The magnitude and pace of global change demand rapid assessment of nature and its contributions to people. We present a fine-scale global modeling of current status and future scenarios for several contributions: water quality regulation, coastal risk reduction, and crop pollination. We find that where people's needs for nature are now greatest, nature's ability to meet those needs is declining. Up to 5 billion people face higher water pollution and insufficient pollination for nutrition under future scenarios of land use and climate change, particularly in Africa and South Asia. Hundreds of millions of people face heightened coastal risk across Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas. Continued loss of nature poses severe threats, yet these can be reduced 3- to 10-fold under a sustainable development scenario.
View details for DOI 10.1126/science.aaw3372
View details for PubMedID 31601772
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Assessing ecosystem service provision under climate change to support conservation and development planning in Myanmar.
PloS one
2017; 12 (9): e0184951
Abstract
Inclusion of ecosystem services (ES) information into national-scale development and climate adaptation planning has yet to become common practice, despite demand from decision makers. Identifying where ES originate and to whom the benefits flow-under current and future climate conditions-is especially critical in rapidly developing countries, where the risk of ES loss is high. Here, using Myanmar as a case study, we assess where and how ecosystems provide key benefits to the country's people and infrastructure. We model the supply of and demand for sediment retention, dry-season baseflows, flood risk reduction and coastal storm protection from multiple beneficiaries. We find that locations currently providing the greatest amount of services are likely to remain important under the range of climate conditions considered, demonstrating their importance in planning for climate resilience. Overlap between priority areas for ES provision and biodiversity conservation is higher than expected by chance overall, but the areas important for multiple ES are underrepresented in currently designated protected areas and Key Biodiversity Areas. Our results are contributing to development planning in Myanmar, and our approach could be extended to other contexts where there is demand for national-scale natural capital information to shape development plans and policies.
View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0184951
View details for PubMedID 28934282
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC5608473
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Who loses? Tracking ecosystem service redistribution from road development and mitigation in the Peruvian Amazon
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
2015; 13 (6): 309-315
View details for DOI 10.1890/140337
View details for Web of Science ID 000359273400015
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The Global Dam Watch database of river barrier and reservoir information for large-scale applications.
Scientific data
2024; 11 (1): 1069
Abstract
There are millions of river barriers worldwide, ranging from wooden locks to concrete dams, many of which form associated impoundments to store water in small ponds or large reservoirs. Besides their benefits, there is growing recognition of important environmental and social trade-offs related to these artificial structures. However, global datasets describing their characteristics and geographical distribution are often biased towards particular regions or specific applications, such as hydropower dams affecting fish migration, and are thus not globally consistent. Here, we present a new river barrier and reservoir database developed by the Global Dam Watch (GDW) consortium that integrates, harmonizes, and augments existing global datasets to support large-scale analyses. Data curation involved extensive quality control processes to create a single, globally consistent data repository of instream barriers and reservoirs that are co-registered to a digital river network. Version 1.0 of the GDW database contains 41,145 barrier locations and 35,295 associated reservoir polygons representing a cumulative storage capacity of 7,420 km3 and an artificial terrestrial surface water area of 304,600 km2.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41597-024-03752-9
View details for PubMedID 39379379
View details for PubMedCentralID 1851560
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Leveraging natural capital accounting to support businesses with nature-related risk assessments and disclosures.
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
2024; 379 (1903): 20220328
Abstract
Nature loss threatens businesses, the global economy and financial stability. Understanding and addressing these risks for business will require credible measurement approaches and data. This paper explores how natural capital accounting (NCA) can support business data and information needs related to nature, including disclosures aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures recommendations. As businesses seek to measure, manage and disclose their nature-related risks and opportunities, they will need well-organized, consistent and high-quality information regarding their dependencies and impacts on nature, which few businesses currently collect or track in-house. NCA may be useful for these purposes but has not been widely used or applied by businesses. National NCA guided by the U.N. System of Environmental-Economic Accounting may provide: (i) a useful framework for businesses in conceptualizing, organizing and managing nature-related data and statistics; and (ii) data and information that can directly support business disclosures, corporate NCA and other business applications. This paper explores these opportunities as well as synergies between national and corporate natural capital accounts. In addition, the paper discusses key barriers to advancing the wider use and benefits of NCA for business, including: awareness of NCA, data access, business capabilities related to NCA, spatial and temporal scales of data, audit and assurance considerations, potential risks, and costs and incentives. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.
View details for DOI 10.1098/rstb.2022.0328
View details for PubMedID 38643793
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Centring justice in conceptualizing and improving access to urban nature
PEOPLE AND NATURE
2023
View details for DOI 10.1002/pan3.10470
View details for Web of Science ID 000989379400001
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Colombian biodiversity is governed by a rich and diverse policy mix.
Nature ecology & evolution
2023
Abstract
We lack an understanding of how diverse policymakers interact to govern biodiversity. Taking Colombia as a focal case, we examined six decades of biodiversity governance (1959-2018). Here we analysed the composition of the policy mix, and how it has evolved over time, how policies differ among lead actors and ecosystems, and whether the policy mix addresses the primary threats to biodiversity. We identified 186 biodiversity-related policies that govern multiple ecosystems, use different instruments and address the main threats to biodiversity (that is, agriculture and aquaculture, and biological resource use). We found policy gaps in the governance of invasive species and wildlife trade. Biodiversity policy integration into some sectoral policies, such as climate change, poverty and pollution, has become more common in the past decade. Our results point to an increased need for effective coordination across sectors and actors, as new ones influence and implement the policy mix.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41559-023-01983-4
View details for PubMedID 36747078
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Reducing seed predation by introduced rodents helps, but is insufficient, to prevent long-term decline of common forest trees
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
2023; 278
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109874
View details for Web of Science ID 000919418500001
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Global Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Annual review of resource economics
2022; 14: 333-354
Abstract
Our world is undergoing rapid planetary changes driven by human activities, often mediated by economic incentives and resource management, affecting all life on Earth. Concurrently, many infectious diseases have recently emerged or spread into new populations. Mounting evidence suggests that global change-including climate change, land-use change, urbanization, and global movement of individuals, species, and goods-may be accelerating disease emergence by reshaping ecological systems in concert with socioeconomic factors. Here, we review insights, approaches, and mechanisms by which global change drives disease emergence from a disease ecology perspective. We aim to spur more interdisciplinary collaboration with economists and identification of more effective and sustainable interventions to prevent disease emergence. While almost all infectious diseases change in response to global change, the mechanisms and directions of these effects are system specific, requiring new, integrated approaches to disease control that recognize linkages between environmental and economic sustainability and human and planetary health.
View details for DOI 10.1146/annurev-resource-111820-024214
View details for PubMedID 38371741
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC10871673
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Evidence gaps and diversity among potential win-win solutions for conservation and human infectious disease control
LANCET PLANETARY HEALTH
2022; 6 (8): E694-E705
View details for Web of Science ID 000863508500010
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Evidence gaps and diversity among potential win-win solutions for conservation and human infectious disease control.
The Lancet. Planetary health
2022; 6 (8): e694-e705
Abstract
As sustainable development practitioners have worked to "ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all" and "conserve life on land and below water", what progress has been made with win-win interventions that reduce human infectious disease burdens while advancing conservation goals? Using a systematic literature review, we identified 46 proposed solutions, which we then investigated individually using targeted literature reviews. The proposed solutions addressed diverse conservation threats and human infectious diseases, and thus, the proposed interventions varied in scale, costs, and impacts. Some potential solutions had medium-quality to high-quality evidence for previous success in achieving proposed impacts in one or both sectors. However, there were notable evidence gaps within and among solutions, highlighting opportunities for further research and adaptive implementation. Stakeholders seeking win-win interventions can explore this Review and an online database to find and tailor a relevant solution or brainstorm new solutions.
View details for DOI 10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00148-6
View details for PubMedID 35932789
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Deep Learning Segmentation of Satellite Imagery Identifies Aquatic Vegetation Associated with Snail Intermediate Hosts of Schistosomiasis in Senegal, Africa
REMOTE SENSING
2022; 14 (6)
View details for DOI 10.3390/rs14061345
View details for Web of Science ID 000774465700001
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Global Change and Emerging Infectious Diseases
ANNUAL REVIEW OF RESOURCE ECONOMICS
2022; 14: 333-354
View details for DOI 10.1146/annurev-resource-111820-024214
View details for Web of Science ID 000865583800015
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Prioritizing actions: spatial action maps for conservation.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
2021
Abstract
Spatial prioritization is a critical step in conservation planning, a process designed to ensure that limited resources are applied in ways that deliver the highest possible returns for biodiversity and human wellbeing. In practice, many spatial prioritizations fall short of their potential by focusing on places rather than actions, and by using data of snapshots of assets or threats rather than estimated impacts. We introduce spatial action mapping as an approach that overcomes these shortfalls. This approach produces a spatially explicit view of where and how much a given conservation action is likely to contribute to achieving stated conservation goals. Through seven case examples, we demonstrate simple to complex versions of how this method can be applied across local to global scales to inform decisions about a wide range of conservation actions and benefits. Spatial action mapping can support major improvements in efficient use of conservation resources and will reach its full potential as the quality of environmental, social, and economic datasets converge and conservation impact evaluations improve.
View details for DOI 10.1111/nyas.14651
View details for PubMedID 34176148
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An ecosystem service perspective on urban nature, physical activity, and health.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
2021; 118 (22)
Abstract
Nature underpins human well-being in critical ways, especially in health. Nature provides pollination of nutritious crops, purification of drinking water, protection from floods, and climate security, among other well-studied health benefits. A crucial, yet challenging, research frontier is clarifying how nature promotes physical activity for its many mental and physical health benefits, particularly in densely populated cities with scarce and dwindling access to nature. Here we frame this frontier by conceptually developing a spatial decision-support tool that shows where, how, and for whom urban nature promotes physical activity, to inform urban greening efforts and broader health assessments. We synthesize what is known, present a model framework, and detail the model steps and data needs that can yield generalizable spatial models and an effective tool for assessing the urban nature-physical activity relationship. Current knowledge supports an initial model that can distinguish broad trends and enrich urban planning, spatial policy, and public health decisions. New, iterative research and application will reveal the importance of different types of urban nature, the different subpopulations who will benefit from it, and nature's potential contribution to creating more equitable, green, livable cities with active inhabitants.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.2018472118
View details for PubMedID 33990458
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Human-mediated impacts on biodiversity and the consequences for zoonotic disease spillover.
Current biology : CB
2021; 31 (19): R1342-R1361
Abstract
Human-mediated changes to natural ecosystems have consequences for both ecosystem and human health. Historically, efforts to preserve or restore 'biodiversity' can seem to be in opposition to human interests. However, the integration of biodiversity conservation and public health has gained significant traction in recent years, and new efforts to identify solutions that benefit both environmental and human health are ongoing. At the forefront of these efforts is an attempt to clarify ways in which biodiversity conservation can help reduce the risk of zoonotic spillover of pathogens from wild animals, sparking epidemics and pandemics in humans and livestock. However, our understanding of the mechanisms by which biodiversity change influences the spillover process is incomplete, limiting the application of integrated strategies aimed at achieving positive outcomes for both conservation and disease management. Here, we review the literature, considering a broad scope of biodiversity dimensions, to identify cases where zoonotic pathogen spillover is mechanistically linked to changes in biodiversity. By reframing the discussion around biodiversity and disease using mechanistic evidence - while encompassing multiple aspects of biodiversity including functional diversity, landscape diversity, phenological diversity, and interaction diversity - we work toward general principles that can guide future research and more effectively integrate the related goals of biodiversity conservation and spillover prevention. We conclude by summarizing how these principles could be used to integrate the goal of spillover prevention into ongoing biodiversity conservation initiatives.
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.070
View details for PubMedID 34637744
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Creating a space for place and multidimensional well-being: lessons learned from localizing the SDGs
SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
2020
View details for DOI 10.1007/s11625-020-00822-w
View details for Web of Science ID 000535394700001
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Restoring to the future: Environmental, cultural, and management trade-offs in historical versus hybrid restoration of a highly modified ecosystem
CONSERVATION LETTERS
2019; 12 (1)
View details for DOI 10.1111/conl.12606
View details for Web of Science ID 000458575500001
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Look beyond peer-reviewed literature and traditional validation when assessing ecosystem services modeling efforts: A response to Ochoa and Urbina-Cardona's review
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
2018; 30: 1–2
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.01.004
View details for Web of Science ID 000428532600002
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Distilling the role of ecosystem services in the Sustainable Development Goals
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
2018; 29: 70–82
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.10.010
View details for Web of Science ID 000424282600008
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Bringing multiple values to the table: assessing future land-use and climate change in North Kona, Hawai'i
ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY
2018; 23 (1)
View details for DOI 10.5751/ES-09936-230133
View details for Web of Science ID 000432464800036
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Incorporating climate change into ecosystem service assessments and decisions: a review
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
2017; 23 (1): 28-41
Abstract
Climate change is having a significant impact on ecosystem services and is likely to become increasingly important as this phenomenon intensifies. Future impacts can be difficult to assess as they often involve long timescales, dynamic systems with high uncertainties, and are typically confounded by other drivers of change. Despite a growing literature on climate change impacts on ecosystem services, no quantitative syntheses exist. Hence, we lack an overarching understanding of the impacts of climate change, how they are being assessed, and the extent to which other drivers, uncertainties, and decision making are incorporated. To address this, we systematically reviewed the peer-reviewed literature that assesses climate change impacts on ecosystem services at subglobal scales. We found that the impact of climate change on most types of services was predominantly negative (59% negative, 24% mixed, 4% neutral, 13% positive), but varied across services, drivers, and assessment methods. Although uncertainty was usually incorporated, there were substantial gaps in the sources of uncertainty included, along with the methods used to incorporate them. We found that relatively few studies integrated decision making, and even fewer studies aimed to identify solutions that were robust to uncertainty. For management or policy to ensure the delivery of ecosystem services, integrated approaches that incorporate multiple drivers of change and account for multiple sources of uncertainty are needed. This is undoubtedly a challenging task, but ignoring these complexities can result in misleading assessments of the impacts of climate change, suboptimal management outcomes, and the inefficient allocation of resources for climate adaptation.
View details for DOI 10.1111/gcb.13457
View details for Web of Science ID 000390218300004
View details for PubMedID 27507077
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OPAL: An open-source software tool for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services into impact assessment and mitigation decisions
ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE
2016; 84: 121-133
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.06.008
View details for Web of Science ID 000385595200009
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Entry Points for Considering Ecosystem Services within Infrastructure Planning: How to Integrate Conservation with Development in Order to Aid Them Both
CONSERVATION LETTERS
2016; 9 (3): 221-227
View details for DOI 10.1111/conl.12201
View details for Web of Science ID 000378940700009
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Model development for the assessment of terrestrial and aquatic habitat quality in conservation planning
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
2016; 540: 63-70
View details for DOI 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.03.064
View details for PubMedID 25836757
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Degradation in carbon stocks near tropical forest edges.
Nature communications
2015; 6: 10158
Abstract
Carbon stock estimates based on land cover type are critical for informing climate change assessment and landscape management, but field and theoretical evidence indicates that forest fragmentation reduces the amount of carbon stored at forest edges. Here, using remotely sensed pantropical biomass and land cover data sets, we estimate that biomass within the first 500 m of the forest edge is on average 25% lower than in forest interiors and that reductions of 10% extend to 1.5 km from the forest edge. These findings suggest that IPCC Tier 1 methods overestimate carbon stocks in tropical forests by nearly 10%. Proper accounting for degradation at forest edges will inform better landscape and forest management and policies, as well as the assessment of carbon stocks at landscape and national levels.
View details for DOI 10.1038/ncomms10158
View details for PubMedID 26679749
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4703854
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Degradation in carbon stocks near tropical forest edges
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
2015; 6
View details for DOI 10.1038/ncomms10158
View details for Web of Science ID 000367573500005
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Moderate land use changes plant functional composition without loss of functional diversity in India's Western Ghats
ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
2015; 25 (6): 1711-1724
View details for DOI 10.1890/15-0068.1.sm
View details for Web of Science ID 000360813100022
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Resilience of palm populations to disturbance is determined by interactive effects of fire, herbivory and harvest
JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY
2015; 103 (4): 1032-1043
View details for DOI 10.1111/1365-2745.12420
View details for Web of Science ID 000356630600025
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Spatial patterns of agricultural expansion determine impacts on biodiversity and carbon storage
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
2015; 112 (24): 7402-7407
Abstract
The agricultural expansion and intensification required to meet growing food and agri-based product demand present important challenges to future levels and management of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Influential actors such as corporations, governments, and multilateral organizations have made commitments to meeting future agricultural demand sustainably and preserving critical ecosystems. Current approaches to predicting the impacts of agricultural expansion involve calculation of total land conversion and assessment of the impacts on biodiversity or ecosystem services on a per-area basis, generally assuming a linear relationship between impact and land area. However, the impacts of continuing land development are often not linear and can vary considerably with spatial configuration. We demonstrate what could be gained by spatially explicit analysis of agricultural expansion at a large scale compared with the simple measure of total area converted, with a focus on the impacts on biodiversity and carbon storage. Using simple modeling approaches for two regions of Brazil, we find that for the same amount of land conversion, the declines in biodiversity and carbon storage can vary two- to fourfold depending on the spatial pattern of conversion. Impacts increase most rapidly in the earliest stages of agricultural expansion and are more pronounced in scenarios where conversion occurs in forest interiors compared with expansion into forests from their edges. This study reveals the importance of spatially explicit information in the assessment of land-use change impacts and for future land management and conservation.
View details for DOI 10.1073/pnas.1406485112
View details for Web of Science ID 000356251800035
View details for PubMedID 26082547
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4475955
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Assessing the Effects of Multiple Stressors on the Recruitment of Fruit Harvested Trees in a Tropical Dry Forest, Western Ghats, India
PLOS ONE
2015; 10 (3)
View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0119634
View details for Web of Science ID 000351284600080
View details for PubMedID 25781482
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Assessing the effects of multiple stressors on the recruitment of fruit harvested trees in a tropical dry forest, Western Ghats, India.
PloS one
2015; 10 (3)
Abstract
The harvest of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), together with other sources of anthropogenic disturbance, impact plant populations greatly. Despite this, conservation research on NTFPs typically focuses on harvest alone, ignoring possible confounding effects of other anthropogenic and ecological factors. Disentangling anthropogenic disturbances is critical in regions such as India's Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot with high human density. Identifying strategies that permit both use and conservation of resources is essential to preserving biodiversity while meeting local needs. We assessed the effects of NTFP harvesting (fruit harvest from canopy and lopping of branches for fruit) in combination with other common anthropogenic disturbances (cattle grazing, fire frequency and distance from village), in order to identify which stressors have greater effects on recruitment of three tropical dry forest fruit tree species. Specifically, we assessed the structure of 54 populations of Phyllanthus emblica, P. indofischeri and Terminalia chebula spread across the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Western Ghats to ask: (1) How are populations recruiting? and (2) What anthropogenic disturbance and environmental factors, specifically forest type and elevation, are the most important predictors of recruitment status? We combined participatory research with an information-theoretic model-averaging approach to determine which factors most affect population structure and recruitment status. Our models illustrate that for T. chebula, high fire frequency and high fruit harvest intensity decreased the proportion of saplings, while lopping branches or stems to obtain fruit increased it. For Phyllanthus spp, recruitment was significantly lower in plots with more frequent fire. Indices of recruitment of both species were significantly higher for plots in more open-canopy environments of savanna woodlands than in dry forests. Our research illustrates an approach for identifying which factors are most important in limiting recruitment of NTFP populations and other plant species that may be in decline, in order to design effective management strategies.
View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0119634
View details for PubMedID 25781482
View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4364117
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High frequency of premature termination mutations in the factor V gene: Three factor V deficiency case reports and a mutation review
THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS
2005; 93 (3): 610-611
View details for Web of Science ID 000227808200034
View details for PubMedID 15735818