Papers by Malika Virah-Sawmy
The Extractive Industries and Society, 2015
Chelonian Research Monographs, 2013
Journal of Environmental Management, 2014
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Journal of Biogeography, 2008
Journal of Biogeography, 2010
Aim There remains some uncertainty concerning the causes of extinctions of Madagascar's megafauna... more Aim There remains some uncertainty concerning the causes of extinctions of Madagascar's megafauna. One hypothesis is that they were caused by overhunting by humans. A second hypothesis is that their extinction was caused by both environmental change and hunting. This paper systematically addresses the second hypothesis through examination of two new pollen records from southeastern Madagascar alongside other published records across the island.
Journal of Applied Ecology, 2013
Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2009
Ecological Monographs, 2009
Conceptual models suggest a link between spatial heterogeneity, diversity, and resilience, but fe... more Conceptual models suggest a link between spatial heterogeneity, diversity, and resilience, but few empirical studies exist to demonstrate such an ecological relationship. In this study, we investigated the nature of spatial heterogeneity and resilience of two forest fragments from Madagascar's highly endangered littoral forest, and two nearby sites in the surrounding ericoid grassland. This ecosystem has been subjected to a number of large environmental disturbances over the last 6000 years, including a late Holocene sea-level rise of 1-3 m above the present level, pronounced drought events, and natural and anthropogenic fires. The aims were to determine the driving mechanisms for heterogeneity and to compare the impact of large environmental disturbances among the four sites.
Conservation Letters, 2009
... Southeast Madagascar is a rich biological and cultural landscape containing many highly biodi... more ... Southeast Madagascar is a rich biological and cultural landscape containing many highly biodiverse forest types. The littoral forest is among these and has exceptional conservation and social value. If a long-term ecological perspective is included in this picture, it becomes ...
Conservation Letters, 2010
Biology Letters, 2009
Madagascar's rainforests are among the most biodiverse in the world. Understanding the population... more Madagascar's rainforests are among the most biodiverse in the world. Understanding the population dynamics of important species within these forests in response to past climatic variability provides valuable insight into current and future species composition. Here, we use a population-level approach to analyse palaeoecological records over the last 5300 years to understand how populations of Symphonia cf. verrucosa became locally extinct in some rainforest fragments along the southeast coast of Madagascar in response to rapid climate change, yet persisted in others. Our results indicate that regional (climate) variability contributed to synchronous decline of S. cf. verrucosa populations in these forests. Superimposed on regional fluctuations were local processes that could have contributed or mitigated extinction. Specifically, in the forest with low soil nutrients, population model predictions indicated that there was coexistence between S. cf. verrucosa and Erica spp., but in the nutrient-rich forest, interspecific effects between Symphonia and Erica spp. may have pushed Symphonia to extinction at the peak of climatic change. We also demonstrate that Symphonia is a good indicator of a threshold event, exhibiting erratic fluctuations prior to and long after the critical climatic point has passed.
Context Integrated conservation decision-making frameworks that help to design or adjust practice... more Context Integrated conservation decision-making frameworks that help to design or adjust practices that are cognisant of environmental change and adaptation are urgently needed. Objective We demonstrate how a landscape vulnerability framework combining sensitivity, adaptive capacity, and exposure to climate change framed along two main axes of concern can help to identify potential strategies for conservation and adaptation decisionmaking, using a landscape in Madagascar's spiny forest as a case-study.
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Papers by Malika Virah-Sawmy