Mwangi, Jane Gachambi, Mohammed, Salisu, Umar, Kabir Mustapha, Haggar, Jeremy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4682-4879 and Santika, Truly ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3125-9467 (2024) Towards the sustainability of African sandalwood: understanding the distribution and environmental requirements. Plants, People, Planet. ISSN 2572-2611 (Online) (In Press)

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Abstract

• African sandalwood (Osyris lanceolata) is a versatile plant with significant economic and societal importance. It is threatened in several countries in Africa due to overexploitation. The lack of knowledge about the plant's ecology and environmental requirements complicates the species' long-term management.
• Here, we sought to address this issue by providing a novel understanding of the environmental factors that influence the occurrence of African sandalwood and its potential distribution. Using publicly available occurrence records from 1950 to 2021 and field data, we examined the species' habitat requirements in eastern, southern, and horn of Africa regions. We applied the Generalized Additive Models to link the plant's occurrence data to twelve environmental variables reflecting climatic, physiographic, and edaphic characteristics, while controlling for the biases that arise from publicly gathered occurrence records.
• Our findings revealed that the plant's habitat requirements vary among the three regions investigated. While climatic factors are essential in all three regions, physiographic aspects are mainly important for the eastern and southern populations, while edaphic variables were pertinent exclusively in the southern region. Areas suitable and optimal for the plant were estimated to comprise 674,700 km2 (17.3% of total land area) in eastern Africa, 267,750 km2 (25.6%) in the horn of Africa, and 716,300 km2 (13.9%) in southern Africa.
• More than two-thirds of these areas are located on unprotected lands, highlighting the importance of community involvement for a sustainable management of the species. Our results on the potential geographical distribution of African sandalwood are crucial to guide more targeted conservation and recovery efforts.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	abiotic, anthropogenic, conservation, habitat modelling, management, Osyris lanceolata
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography S Agriculture > SB Plant culture
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Sustainable Agriculture 4 One Health Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Sustainable Agriculture 4 One Health > Ecosystems Services
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 14:23
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/48857

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