Estelle Razanatsoa

University of Cape Town | UCT · Department of Biological Sciences

Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by compiling and presenting comprehensive data on species diversity, endemism, and rates of species description and human uses, in addition to presenting...

Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevan...

In the face of a changing environment linked to increased drought and depletion of natural resources, paleoecological data from the last 2000 years show how communities in southwestern Madagascar adopted both incremental and transformational adaptations that allowed them to cope with environmental variability.

Mountains are highly significant regions in the context of climate change and sustainable development, at the intersection of accelerated warming and a large population depending directly or indirectly on them. They are regions of high biological and cultural diversity and provide vital goods and services to people living in and around mountain reg...

Indigenous communities depend on natural capital and adapt their livelihoods to changing environmental conditions and ecosystem services. This paper aims to understand how southwestern Malagasy living around the Mikea National Park and the Mangoky River, have adapted their subsistence strategies to decreasing rainfall over time. We analyzed charcoa...

This paper presents the pollen data and its interpretation of a small lake in southwest Madagascar.

Modern pollen studies are valuable for the calibration of pollen records and contribute to the understanding of past vegetation dynamics. Here, we present a qualitative review of available published and (where possible) unpublished modern pollen studies conducted in tropical Africa since pollen analysis emerged as a discipline in the early 20th cen...

Madagascar experienced environmental change during the Late-Holocene, and the relative importance of climatic and anthropogenic drivers is still the subject of an ongoing debate. Using palaeoecological records from the southwest region at Lake Longiza, we provide additional records to elucidate the complex history of the island and to identify the...

Tropical ecosystems host a large proportion of global biodiversity and directly support the livelihoods of many of the world's poorest, and often marginalized, people through ecosystem goods and services and conservation employment. The coronavirus pandemic has challenged existing conservation structures and management but provides an opportunity t...

There is a growing need for more sustainable approaches to tackle future environmental and human livelihood challenges, including biodiversity losses following land-use intensification, and climate impacts under future warmer conditions (Fischer et al. 2018). Conservation plans often lack the full knowledge base to address such challenges (Fig. 1),...

In this thesis, I investigated the impact of human land use and rainfall on the tropical dry forest in Madagascar by generating new records of vegetation, fire regime, and rainfall of the past 2000 years. We analysed proxies such as pollen and carbon isotope, microscopic charcoal in sediment cores for vegetation and fire while a measurement of the...

Highlighting the importance of paleoscience can be difficult. This article has been published after a workshop of young researchers during the PAGES Young Scientist Meeting. It is possible to advertise the importance of paleo research in solving present-day socio-economic problems, despite current challenges. This could be achieved by understanding...