Scientific Publications
Plants and People of Vanuatu

Calendar plants in southern Vanuatu
Balick, M.J., G.M. Plunkett, K.D. Harrison, N. Kelso, M. Wahe, D.M. Ramík, P. Dovo, W. Nasauman, R. Neriam, T. Keith, T.A. Ranker, and J.-P. Wahe. 2023. Calendar plants in southern Vanuatu. Journal of Economic Botany, online early at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12231-023-09575-w.
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The palolo worm as a cornerstone of Pacific ecological time-reckoning
Kelso, N., G.M. Plunkett, P. Dovo, D.M. Ramík, C.B. Paul Vusqal, K.D. Harrison, and M.J. Balick. 2023. The palolo worm as a cornerstone of Pacific ecological time-reckoning. Ethnobiology Letters 14: 24–35.
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Towards a checklist of the Vascular Flora of Vanuatu
Plunkett, G.M., T.A. Ranker, C. Sam & M.J. Balick. 2022. Towards a checklist of the Vascular Flora of Vanuatu. Candollea 77: 105–118
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Ethnobotany of Ferns and Lycophytes from Tafea
Ranker, T.A., M.J. Balick, G.M. Plunkett, K.D. Harrison, J.-P. Wahe, and M. Wahe. 2022. Ethnobotany and Vernacular Names of the Lycophytes and Ferns of Tafea Province, Vanuatu. American Fern Journal 112: 143–177.
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Weather Magic as Environmental Knowledge in Southern Vanuatu
Michael J. Balick, K. David Harrison, Neal Kelso, Reuben Neriam, Johnson Noar, Gregory M. Plunkett, Dominik M. Ramík, and Jean-Pascal Wahe. Weather Magic as Environmental Knowledge in Southern Vanuatu. J. of Ethnobiology, 42(4):383-399 (2022).
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Tropical Fungal Communities Composition
Boraks, A., G.M. Plunkett, T. Doro, F. Alo; S. Chanel, M. Tuiwawa, T. Ticktin, A.S. Amend. 2021. Scale-dependent influences of distance and vegetation on the composition of aboveground and belowground tropical fungal communities. Microbial Ecology 81: 874–883.
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Preliminary Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Vanuatu
Plunkett, Gregory & Ranker, Tom & Sam, Chanel & Balick, Michael. (2022). Towards a checklist of the Vascular Flora of Vanuatu. Candollea. 77. 10.15553/c2022v771a8.
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High resilience of Pacific Island forests to a category-5 cyclone
Ticktin, T., A. McGuigan, F. Alo, M.J. Balick, A. Boraks, C. Sam, T. Doro, P. Dovo, A. Naikitini, T. Ranker, M. Tuiwawa, J.P. Wahe, and G.M. Plunkett. 2024. High resilience of Pacific Island Forests to a Category-5 Cyclone. Science of the Total Environment 922: 170973.
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Fungi in soil and understory have coupled distribution patterns
Boraks, A., & A.S. Amend. 2021. Fungi in soil and understory have coupled distribution patterns. PeerJ 9:e11915. (DOI 10.7717/peerj.11915)
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Wind Lore as Environmental Knowledge in Southern Vanuatu.
Harrison, K.D., N. Kelso, D.M. Ramík, N. Ramík, G.M. Plunkett, M. Wahe, and M.J. Balick. Wind Lore as Environmental Knowledge in Southern Vanuatu. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, v13n1/1
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Cyclones & Forest Damage
Ibanez, T., D. Bauman, S.-I. Aiba, T. Arsouze, P.J. Bellingham, C. Birkinshaw, P. Birnbaum, T.J. Curran, S.J. DeWalt, J. Dwyer, T. Fourcaud, J. Franklin, T.S. Kohyama, C. Menkes, D.J. Metcalfe, H. Murphy, R. Muscarella, G.M. Plunkett, C. Sam, E. Tanner, B.N. Taylor, J. Thompson, T. Ticktin, M.V. Tuiwawa, M. Uriarte, E.L. Webb, J.K. Zimmerman, and G. Keppel. 2024. Damage to tropical forests caused by cyclones is driven by wind speed but mediated by topographical exposure and tree characteristics. Global Change Biology 30: e17317.
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NaturaList checklist app
Ramík, D.M. and G.M. Plunkett. 2024. NaturaList, a flexible app for creating taxonomic checklists. Brittonia, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12228-024-09805-y.
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People, plants, and sun shape life on Tanna
Balick, M.J., D.M. Ramík, N. Ramík, I.K.N. Kumas, G.M. Plunkett, N. Kelso, P. Dovo, K.D. Harrison. 2024. “The children of the Sun and Moon are the gardens” — how people, plants, and a living Sun shape life on Tanna, Vanuatu. PLoS ONE 91: e0313997.
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