Jan Salick

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Jan Salick is an American botanist who researches the interaction between humans and plants (ethnobotany) and conservation biology. Her specialisms include alpine environments, climate change, indigenous peoples and traditional knowledge. She is a past-president of the Society for Economic Botany and holds their Distinguished Economic Botanist award. She is also Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration. In 2019 she retired as Senior Curator of Ethnobotany at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and now has emerita status.

Contents

Education

Salick gained her BA at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1973 and her MS from Duke University in 1977, both in biology. Her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology was from Cornell University in 1983, [1] [2] with her dissertation, on the crop plant, cassava (Manihot esculenta), [1] entitled "Agroecology of the Cassava Lacebug". [3]

Career and research

Salick worked at the New York Botanical Garden (1983–89), rising to assistant curator. She then joined the Department of Plant Biology at Ohio University (1989–2000) as assistant and then associate professor of tropical ecology and ethnobotany. She has since been Curator and Senior Curator of Ethnobotany at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, [1] [2] [4] and is also an adjunct professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis. [5] In 2019 she retired from her position at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and now has emerita status. [4]

One of the focusi of her recent research has been the alpine environment of the Himalayas, and in particular, the effects of climate change and human activities. [6] She worked with partners in China, Nepal and Bhutan to establish the Himalayan team of the Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments (GLORIA), an international network that aims to document plant life diversity in alpine regions globally and to study how it is affected by climate change over time. [7] [8]

Plants used in traditional medicine and other forms of traditional knowledge are another interest. [6] With Wayne Law, Salick documented how the cotton-headed snow lotus (Saussurea laniceps), a rare species of Himalayan snow lotus used in traditional Chinese medicine and also often collected by tourists, has decreased in height over a century, apparently in response to pressure from humans selectively picking taller plants. [9] [10] She has also published on the impact of traditional agricultural and forestry practices, for example, among the Yanesha (or Amuesha) people living on the upper Amazon in Peru. [11]

With Robbie Hart, Salick documented phenological changes with climate change in Himalayan rhododendrons on Mount Yulong near Lijian, China. [12] They also published on comparative ethnobotany between the Naxi and Yi peoples. [13]

Most recently, Salick is investigating ethnobotany and food sovereignty with Native American tribes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. [4]

Salick served as a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU) Study Group on sustainable development in 2001–2. [14] In 2007, with Anja Byg, she organized a symposium on climate change and indigenous peoples, held at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Oxford University, UK. [15] In 2009, with Nancy Ross, she edited a special edition of the journal Global Environmental Change entitled "Traditional Peoples and Climate Change". [16] She co-edited (with Katie Konchar and Mark Nesbitt) the 2014 textbook, Curating Biocultural Collections, published by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which won the Postgraduate Textbook Prize of the Royal Society of Biology in 2015. [17] She has collaborated for years with UNESCO on climate change and traditional knowledge. [14] [18]

Awards and honors

Salick is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992) [19] and the Linnean Society of London. [1] [14] She served as president of the Society for Economic Botany in 1997–98 [20] and received the society's Distinguished Economic Botanist award in 2014. [21] In 2020 Salick was awarded the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration by the National Tropical Botanical Garden. [22] [4]

Selected publications

Books

Research papers

Related Research Articles

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Botany, also called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning "pasture", "herbs" "grass", or "fodder"; βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν, "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants, and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes.

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Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for many aspects of life, such as plants as medicines, foods, intoxicants and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", explained the discipline in this way:

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<i>Saussurea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Saussurea is a genus of about 300 species of flowering plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae, native to cool temperate and arctic regions of East Asia, Europe, and North America, with the highest diversity in alpine habitats in the Himalayas and East Asia. Common names include saw-wort and snow lotus, the latter used for a number of high altitude species in East Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnobiology</span> Study of how living things are used by human cultures

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Saussurea laniceps is a rare snow lotus found only in the Himalayas including southwest China. It might also occur in northern Burma. It grows above about 3,200 m (10,500 ft) altitude on alpine scree slopes. It is reputed to have medicinal properties according to traditional Chinese medicine. Among the snow lotus, Saussurea laniceps is proven to be more effective for its anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive effects.

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Reginald John Farrer, was a traveller and plant collector. He published a number of books, although is best known for My Rock Garden. He travelled to Asia in search of a variety of plants, many of which he brought back to England and planted near his home village of Clapham, North Yorkshire.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chandra Prakash Kala</span> Indian ecologist and professor

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James Wessell Gerdemann was an American mycologist. He was known for his contributions to the taxonomy of the Glomeromycota, and expertise in arbuscular mycorrhizae. He earned his bachelor and master's degrees in botany at the University of Missouri. His PhD dissertation, titled "The resistance of two tomato varieties to formae of Fusarium oxysporum", was obtained in 1949 at the University of California at Berkeley. The Gerdemann Botanic Preserve in Yachats, Oregon is named after him.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society for Ethnobotany</span> International learning community on economy

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Conservation Forum Program (PDF), Conservation Forum, 2001, retrieved 5 December 2017
  2. 1 2 Jan Salick: Curator of Ethnobotany, Missouri Botanical Garden and Professor, Biology Department, Washington University & University of Missouri (PDF), University of Wisconsin–Madison , retrieved 5 December 2017
  3. ↑ "Distinguished Economic Botanist Award", Economic Botany , 68 (4): 365–70, 2014, doi:10.1007/s12231-014-9289-0, S2CID   29270486
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Dr. Jan Salick to be Awarded Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration for 2020". ntbg.org. National Tropical Botanical Garden. 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  5. ↑ Jan Salick: Honorary Adjunct Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis , retrieved 5 December 2017
  6. 1 2 Research Staff, Missouri Botanical Garden , retrieved 17 January 2023
  7. ↑ Elizabeth Arnold (19 February 2006), Breathless Work in the High Himalayas, NPR , retrieved 5 December 2017
  8. ↑ Persons involved in GLORIA, Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments, retrieved 5 December 2017
  9. ↑ James Gorman (5 July 2005), "The Case of the Shrinking Lotus", New York Times , retrieved 5 December 2017
  10. ↑ Law W, Salick J (2005), "Human-induced dwarfing of Himalayan snow lotus, Saussurea laniceps (Asteraceae)", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 102 (29): 10218–10220, Bibcode:2005PNAS..10210218L, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0502931102 , PMC   1177378 , PMID   16006524
  11. ↑ J Salick; N Cellinese; S Knapp (1997), "Indigenous diversity of cassava: generation, maintenance, use and loss among the Amuesha, Peruvian upper Amazon", Economic Botany , 51: 6–19, doi:10.1007/bf02910400, S2CID   24382799
  12. ↑ Hart, Robbie; Salick, Jan (2018). "Vulnerability of phenological progressions over season and elevation to climate change: Rhododendrons of Mt. Yulong". Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. 34. Elsevier BV: 129–139. doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2018.09.001. ISSN   1433-8319. S2CID   92508589.
  13. ↑ Hart, Robbie; Salick, Jan (2017). "Dynamic Ecological Knowledge Systems Amid Changing Place and Climate: Mt. Yulong Rhododendrons". Journal of Ethnobiology. 37 (1). Society of Ethnobiology: 21–36. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-37.1.21. ISSN   0278-0771. S2CID   89859292.
  14. 1 2 3 Science, traditional knowledge and sustainable development (PDF), UNESCO, 2002, retrieved 5 December 2017
  15. ↑ Jan Salick; Anja Byg (May 2007), Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change (PDF), Tyndall Centre , retrieved 5 December 2017
  16. ↑ Global Environmental Change Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 137-316 (May 2009), Elsevier, 2009, retrieved 5 December 2017
  17. ↑ Book Awards Winners 2015, Royal Society of Biology, 2015, retrieved 6 December 2017
  18. ↑ Salick, Jan (2013). "Indigenous knowledge integrated with long term ecological monitoring: Himalaya". In Thaman, R.; Lyver, P.; Mpande, R.; Perez, E.; et al. (eds.). The Contribution of Indigenous and Local Knowledge Systems to IPBES: Building Synergies with Science. Paris, France: UNESCO/UNU.
  19. ↑ Cynthia Lollar, ed. (1992), "New AAAS Fellows Elected as Distinguished Scientists", Science , 255 (5052): 1726, doi: 10.1126/science.255.5052.1726 , JSTOR   2876646
  20. ↑ Presidents, Society for Economic Botany , retrieved 5 December 2017
  21. ↑ Distinguished Economic Botanists, Society for Economic Botany , retrieved 5 December 2017
  22. ↑ "The David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration" (PDF). ntbg.org. 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
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