Dr. Tamara Ticktin

Associate Professor

Contact Information University of Hawai`i at Manoa Botany Department 3190 Maile Way Honolulu, HI 96822 Office: St. John 415 Phone: 808-956-3928 Email: ticktin@hawaii.edu

General Interests 

My research interests lie in understanding the ecological consequences of cultural uses of plants. I am particularly interested in understanding local and indigenous resource management practices and the ways in which these have shaped and continue to shape our natural environments. On a practical level, I am interested in applying this knowledge towards the conservation of biological and cultural diversity. My research draws on methods in quantitative plant ecology, population modeling and ethnoecology.

Specific areas of interest:

• Local and indigenous resource management systems and their ecological impacts (particularly effects on plant population dynamics, plant communities, and plant-plant and plant-animal interactions)
• Relationships between local resource management practices and the conservation of biodiversity
• Ecology and agroecology of tropical non-timber forest products
• Community-based conservation and ecological restoration
• Development of participatory methodologies to integrate ecological sciences and traditional ecological knowledge for biocultural conservation
• Population ecology and conservation of Native Hawaiian plants

Courses

Spring 2008

• BOT 644 Ecological Methods in Ethnoecology

Current Graduate Students

• Orou Gande Gaoue (Ph.D)
• Bambang Hariyadi (Ph.D.)
• Lisa Mandle (Ph.D)
• Shimona Quazi (Ph.D)
• Isabel Schmidt (Ph.D)
• Tamia Souto (Ph.D)
• Namaka Whitehead (Ph.D.)
• Laura Weiss (M.S)

Current Projects

Use, management, ecology and conservation of subsistence and commercial non-timber forest species in the Niligiri Biosphere Reserve, South India: collaborative research with Keystone Foundation (www.keystone-foundation.org) and People and Plants International (www.peopleandplants.org)


Assessing the effects of fruit harvest on population dynamics and patterns of frugivory of medicinal trees in South India: collaborative research with Ashoka Trust for Ecology and the Environment (ATREE: www.atree.org)


Ecology, management and conservation of non-timber rainforest species in Southern Mexico: population, metapopulation and spatially explicit approaches (in collaboration with Proyecto Sierra Santa Marta A.C. mx.geocities.com/pssm_ac/)


Population ecology and conservation of Native Hawaiian plants in the Waianae mountains, O`ahu: assessing the regeneration ecology of five native tree species under differing kinds of land management and history.


Restoration of lowland Hawaiian forests through agroforestry systems with culturally and economically important native species

Selected Publications

Varghese, A. and T. Ticktin.  2008. In Press. Regional variation in non-timber forest product harvest strategies, trade and ecological impacts: the case of black dammar (Canarium strictum Roxb.) use and conservation in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India. Ecology and Society.

Ticktin, T. and J. Spoon. 2008. In Press. Ethnobiology and Conservation. Chapter 15 in Ethnobiology (J.R. Stepp, Ed.), Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO, EOLSS Publishers, Oxford, UK   [http://www.eolss.net]. 

Tabuti, J., T. Ticktin,  V.B. Muwanika and M.Z. Arinaitwe. 2008. In Press. Community attitudes and preferences towards woody vegetation and their implications for conservation in Nawaikoke Sub-county, Uganda.  Oryx.

Setty, S., K.S. Bawa, T. Ticktin, and G. Madegowda. 2008. In Press. Evaluation of a participatory monitoring system for non-timber forest products: the case of amla (Phyllanthus spp.) fruit harvest by indigenous Soliga communities in South India. Ecology and Society.

Etkin, N.L. and T. Ticktin.   Forthcoming: 2009. Advancing an ethno-ecological perspective to integrate theory and method in ethnobotany. In Research Developments in Ethnobotany. U. Paulino de Albuquerque, ed. Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology. Pernambuco, Brazil.

Ticktin, T. and R. Ganesan 2008. Ecological sustainability of non-timber forest product harvest in South Asia. In Management, Utilization, and Conservation of Non-Timber Forest Products in the South Asia Region, eds.  Uma Shaanker, G. Joseph, and A. Hiremath. Tata-McGraw Hill, Bangalore, India.

Gaoue, O. and T. Ticktin. 2008. Impacts of bark and foliage harvest on Khaya senegalensis (Meliaceae) reproductive performance in Benin. Journal of Applied Ecology 45(4): 31-40..

Gaoue, O. and T. Ticktin. 2007. Patterns of harvesting foliage and bark from the multipurpose tree Khaya senegalensis in Benin: variation across ecological regions and its impacts on population structure. Biological Conservation 137: 424-436.

Ticktin, T., T. H. Fraiola, and N. Whitehead. 2007. Non-timber forest product harvesting in alien-dominated forests: effects of frond-harvest and rainfall on the demography of two native Hawaiian ferns. Biodiversity and Conservation 16 (6): 1633-1651.  

 Ticktin, T. N. Whitehead, and H. Fraiola 2006. Traditional gathering of native hula plants in alien-invaded Hawaiian forests: adaptive practices, impacts on alien invasive species, and conservation implications. Environmental Conservation 33 (3): 185-194.

Trauernicht, C. T. Ticktin and G.L. Herrera 2006. Cultivation of nontimber forest products alters patterns of light availability in the understory of an old-growth humid tropical forest in Mexico.  Biotropica 38 (3): 428-436

Ticktin, T. 2005. Applying a metapopulation framework to the management and conservation of a non-timber forest species. Forest Ecology and Management  206(1-3):249-261.

Ticktin, T. and S. Dalle 2005. Medicinal plant use in the practice of midwifery in rural Honduras. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 96 (1-2): 233-249.

Trauernicht, C. and T. Ticktin 2005. The effects of nontimber forest product cultivation on the plant community structure and composition of humid tropical rainforest in Southern Mexico. Forest Ecology and Management 219: 269-278. 

Ticktin, T. and R. Ganesan (forthcoming). Some issues related to the ecological sustainability of NTFP harvest in in South Asia. Pages XX-XX in Management, Utilization and Conservation of Non-timber forest products in the South Asia Region, eds. Uma Shaankar, G. Joseph, and A. Hiremath. Tata-McGraw Hill, Bangalore, India.

Ticktin, T. and P. Nantel. 2004. Dynamics of harvested populations of a tropical understory herb in old-growth versus secondary forests. Biological Conservation 120 (4):461-470.

Ticktin, T.  2004. The ecological implications of harvesting non-timber forest products. Journal of Applied Ecology 41(1):11-21. 

Etkin, N. and T.Ticktin.  2004. Integrating Ethnographic and Ecological Perspectives for Ethnopharmacology Field Research, in Ethnopharmacology, edited by E. Elizabetsky and N. Ektin, in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS). Developed under the auspices of the UNESCO, EOLSS Publishers, Oxford, UK   [http://www.eolss.net].

Ticktin, T. 2003. Relationships between El niño southern oscillation and demographic patterns of a famine food for collared peccaries. Biotropica 35(2): 189-197.

Ticktin, T., T. Johns, and V. Chopal Xoca. 2003. Patterns of growth in Aechmea magdalenae and its potential as a forest crop. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 94(2):123-139.

Ticktin T., P. Nantel, F. Ramírez and T. Johns. 2002. Effects of variation on harvest limits for nontimber forest species in Mexico. Conservation Biology 16(3):691-705.

Ticktin, T. and T. Johns. 2002. Chinanteco management of Aechmea magdalenae (Bromeliaceae): implications for incorporating TEK and TRM in management plans. Economic Botany:56(2):43-57.

Ticktin, T. 2002. The history of ixtle in Mexico. Economic Botany 56(1):92-94.

Ticktin, T., G. De la Peña, C. Illsley, S.Dalle and T. Johns. 2002. Participatory ethnoecological research for conservation: lessons from case-studies in Mesoamerica. Pages 575-584 in Stepp J. R., F.S. Wyndham and R. Zarger (eds). Ethnobiology and Biocultural Diversity: Proceedings of the Seventh International Society for Ethnobiology.

Johns, T. Mahunnah, R.L. Sanaya, P. Chapman, L. and Ticktin, T. 1998. Saponins and phenolic content in plant dietary additives of a traditional subsistence community, the Batemi of Ngorongoro District, Tanzania.  Journal of Ethnopharmacology 66 (1):1-10.