Tamara Ticktin’s research while affiliated with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and other places

Globally, protected areas associated with sacred sites and cemeteries are an emerging area of research. However, they are biased toward terrestrial systems. In Fiji, funerary protected areas (FPAs) in freshwater and marine systems are culturally protected by Indigenous Fijians following the burial of a loved one on clan land. First documented in the 1800s, FPAs in Fiji have not been researched despite more than 30 years of conservation efforts and countrywide comanagement of natural resources. We sought to bridge this knowledge gap by elucidating 8 socioecological attributes of Indigenous FPAs through stratified, purposive, semistructured interviews of 201 key informants across Fiji's 189 districts. Seventy‐three districts actively implemented FPAs; another 34 were not being implemented because of low FPA awareness, FPA exclusion from comanagement plans, and conflicts in chief selection. Thirty‐three percent of districts established FPAs for chiefs only, and 20% established FPAs for any clan member, resulting in the establishment of numerous FPAs annually. From the 1960s to 2019, 188 FPAs were established. Forty‐four percent of FPAs were protected for 100 nights, and 47% protected all resources and associated ecosystems in the FPA. Only 25% of districts harvested edible fish and invertebrates; another 22% harvested edible fish only. For some chiefs’ funeral rites, only turtles were harvested, which are protected by law, thereby requiring government exemption for traditional use. The FPA harvest provisions varied from engaging whole communities to engaging specific clans, such as traditional fishers or those who performed the burial. Our results showed that practices associated with FPAs in Fiji are diverse, organically evolving, and more socially nuanced and complex than the fisheries and food provisioning focus they are known for. Erosion of Indigenous knowledge and practices associated with FPAs and FPA exclusion from conservation planning will negatively affect social and ecological resilience, resulting in vulnerable communities.

Each year, an average of 45 tropical cyclones affect coastal areas and potentially impact forests. The proportion of the most intense cyclones has increased over the past four decades and is predicted to continue to do so. Yet, it remains uncertain how topographical exposure and tree characteristics can mediate the damage caused by increasing wind speed. Here, we compiled empirical data on the damage caused by 11 cyclones occurring over the past 40 years, from 74 forest plots representing tropical regions worldwide, encompassing field data for 22,176 trees and 815 species. We reconstructed the wind structure of those tropical cyclones to estimate the maximum sustained wind speed (MSW) and wind direction at the studied plots. Then, we used a causal inference framework combined with Bayesian generalised linear mixed models to understand and quantify the causal effects of MSW, topographical exposure to wind (EXP), tree size (DBH) and species wood density ( ρ ) on the proportion of damaged trees at the community level, and on the probability of snapping or uprooting at the tree level. The probability of snapping or uprooting at the tree level and, hence, the proportion of damaged trees at the community level, increased with increasing MSW, and with increasing EXP accentuating the damaging effects of cyclones, in particular at higher wind speeds. Higher ρ decreased the probability of snapping and to a lesser extent of uprooting. Larger trees tended to have lower probabilities of snapping but increased probabilities of uprooting. Importantly, the effect of ρ decreasing the probabilities of snapping was more marked for smaller than larger trees and was further accentuated at higher MSW. Our work emphasises how local topography, tree size and species wood density together mediate cyclone damage to tropical forests, facilitating better predictions of the impacts of such disturbances in an increasingly windier world.

Agrobiodiversity is economically, socially, culturally, and ecologically important for resilience of local communities and their agroecosystems. We identified an extreme flood impact on Alpha and Beta agrobiodiversity before, immediately after and two years after the largest flood ever recorded in three different floodplain types along the middle Solimões River in Amazonia. We found that palms and trees, and species native to Brazil, had higher survival rates in all three floodplain types. The low várzea showed the most expressive losses of ethno-species and manioc Alpha diversity among the floodplain types; ethnospecies original diversities were not recovered even two years after the flood, and manioc had the slowest recovery. Ethnospecies Beta diversity was relatively homogeneous among floodplain types before the flood; after the extreme flood more heterogeneity was observed. These results highlight the vulnerability of local agrobiodiversity in the face of extreme climatic events, which drastically affect local food sovereignty and income sources.

This study explores the resilience and damage dynamics of agroforests, a critically important yet understudied agroecological system, in the aftermath of Category-5 Cyclone Winston in Fiji. As agroforestry gains prominence globally as a versatile production system able to support agrobiodiversity and food security for climate resilience, understanding the characteristics that contribute to its resistance and resilience to disturbance becomes increasingly important. Here we examine the effects of individual and species-specific traits, and management (planted and fallow vs forest areas) on the probability of tree stem survival and damage, and discuss the resistant and resilient qualities of trees and management actions in these systems. We found that the probability of post-cyclone survival increased as a function of wood density, irrespective of management type. Damage severity increased with tree size (diameter at breast height). Some of the species with the highest wood density were native trees, emphasizing the role of native species in agroforests, and the value of agroforests to conservation. Overall, agroforest trees experienced relatively low stem mortality (12.2%), suggesting that these agroforests may resist extreme disturbances despite their potential vulnerabilities such as landscape edge effects and altered species compositions. Our study provides insight into the potential of agroforests as resilient agroecological systems capable of withstanding escalating cyclone intensities, and the role of effective management strategies for fostering resilience amid a rapidly changing climate.

Assessing how forests respond to, and recuperate from, cyclones is critical to understanding forest dynamics and planning for the impacts of climate change. Projected increases in the intensity and frequency of severe cyclones can threaten both forests and forest-dependent communities. The Pacific Islands are subject to frequent lowintensity cyclones, but there is little information on the effects of high intensity cyclones, or on how forest stewardship practices may affect outcomes. We assess the resistance and resilience of forests in three communitystewarded sites on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, to the wind-related effects of 2015 Category-5 Cyclone Pam, one of the most intense cyclones to make landfall globally. Drawing on transect data established pre-and postcyclone, we (1) test whether windspeed and tree structural traits predict survival and damage intensity, and whether this varies across sites; (2) assess post-cyclone regeneration of canopy, ground cover, seedlings, and saplings, and how community composition shifts over time and across sites. In sites that sustained a direct hit, 88 % of trees were defoliated, 34 % sustained severe damage, and immediate mortality was 13 %. Initial mortality, but not severe damage, was lower in areas that received an indirect hit and had lower windspeed. Larger trees and those with lighter wood had a higher probability of uprooting and snapping, respectively. Canopy and ground cover regenerated within three years and seedling and sapling regeneration was widespread across life histories, from pioneer to mature forest species. Three species of non-native vines recruited post-cyclone but within 5 years had largely declined or disappeared with canopy closure. Tanna’s historical cyclone frequency, combined with customary stewardship practices that actively maintain a diversity of species and multiplicity of regeneration pathways, are likely responsible for the island’s resistance and resilience to an intense tropical cyclone.

The ecological mechanisms that contribute to maintaining plant populations have been exhaustively examined worldwide, but the relative quantification of the effects of anthropogenic processes on these mechanisms in tropical dioecious tree species has not yet been performed. The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of debarking on the sex ratio, population structure, distribution and spatial correlation between the sexes and growth stages of Amphipterygium adstringens (Anaciardiaceae), a dioecious tree species that is highly exploited for its medicinal bark. We found differences in plant density between the harvested and nonharvested stands. The sex ratio was 1.33♂:1♀ in the harvested stands, while the opposite was true for the nonharvested stands (1.27♀:1♂), which suggested that selective debarking drives androic skewing and has an impact on reproductive performance. However, despite the dominance of a certain sex in terms of relative frequency under each condition, we did not observe spatial sex segregation since the analysis suggested that the spatial independence pattern did not differ between sites. In contrast, facilitation requirements (spatial attraction) between androic plants and plants and between seedlings and saplings were found in nonharvested areas, while spatial uniformity patterns at the population level suggest strategies to avoid competition over space and finite resources in stressful environments. These novel findings indicate that debarking not only modifies the spatial and population structure of a Mesoamerican tropical tree but also influences the sex ratio, consequently affecting the long-term conservation of A. adstringens stands.

This paper summarises the findings of the IPBES assessment for the sustainable use of wild species, which is extensive in both high- and low-income countries. At least 50,000 wild species are usedby billions of people around the world for food, energy, medicine, material, education or recreation, contributing significantly to efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, overexploitation remains a major threat to many wild species. Ensuring and enhancing the sustainability of use of wild species is thus essential for human well-being and biodiversity conservation. Globally, the use of wild species is increasing due to growing human demand and efficiency, but its sustainability varies and depends on the social-ecological contexts in which the use occurs. Multiple environmental and social (including economic) drivers affect the sustainability of use of wild species, posing major current and future challenges. In particular, climate change has already increased the vulnerability of many uses and is expected to increase it further in the coming decades, while global and illegal trades are, in many cases, key drivers of unsustainability. There is no single “silver bullet” policy to address these and other major challenges in the sustainable use of wild species. Rather, effective policies need to integrate inclusive actions at multiple scales that adopt right-based approaches, pay attention to equitable distribution of access and costs and benefits, employ participatory processes, strengthen monitoring programs, build robust customary or government institutions and support context-specific policies, as well as adaptive management.

Agricultural land abandonment affects millions of hectares of cultivated lands globally. While ending cultivation can lead to spontaneous reforestation and ecological benefits, the resulting landscapes often have lower social and agricultural benefits than the native forests and agricultural systems they replace, especially when non-native species dominate successional pathways. This is the case in many Pacific Islands including Hawaiʻi, where approximately 45 % of agricultural lands are unmanaged and non-native forests make up nearly 40 % of total forest cover. Agroforestry systems that integrate native and non-native culturally important plants present a potential pathway to increase social and ecological benefits of unmanaged agricultural lands; however, understanding what the restoration potential is of different agroforestry systems remains a question. We collaborated with a Native Hawaiian-led, community-based organization to explore this potential. We asked, 1) does the composition of agroforestry species planted (i.e., treatment) affect restoration success, and if so, do other factors mediate the effect of treatment, and 2) how do ecological conditions two years after starting restoration compare to conditions pre-restoration? We set up ten 12 × 15 m restoration plots and one reference plot on former pasture land regenerating as non-native forest. Then, we used a functional trait-based approach to select two agroforestry species mixes. Both mixes had high cultural value and each had traits to address a different primary ecological goal: erosion control and early successional facilitation. We monitored the plant communities before restoration and at six months, one year, and 1.5 years post-planting. We used multivariate analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the differences between treatments over time. We found that measures of restoration success did not vary significantly between treatments but did change from baseline. Results of the SEM indicated that understory weed cover was a significant driver of understory cover of agroforestry species, but that variability in agroforestry cover was primarily a result of management factors not tested in the model. This study provides a first step in documenting what non-native forest to agroforest transitions can look like. Our findings suggest that non-native fallows have a high potential for restoration through agroforestry in Pacific Island ecosystems.