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Analysis of institutional authors

Montero-Botey, MariaCorresponding AuthorPerea, RamonAuthor

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July 21, 2024
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Deforestation and water availability as main drivers of human-elephant conflict

Publicated to: Global Ecology and Conservation. 54 e03068- - 2024-10-01 54(), DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03068

Authors:

Montero-Botey, Maria; Kivuyo, Emanuel; Sitati, Noah; Perea, Ramon
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Affiliations

Univ Politecn Madrid, Ctr Conservac Biodivers & Desarrollo Sostenible CB, C Jose Antonio Novais 10, E-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Dept Sistemas & Recursos Nat, c Jose Antonio Novais 10, E-28040 Madrid, Spain - Author
World Wide Fund Nat Tanzania Country Off WWF TCO, Dar Es salaam, Tanzania - Author
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Abstract

Climate change, land use conversion and human population growth are reducing and fragmenting historical ranges of large animals, especially in Africa. Particularly, land conversion to agriculture is leading to coexistence challenges between humans and elephants. In this study we investigated the factors affecting the intensity of elephant crop damage in the Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor (Tanzania). We also predicted future conflicts (crop damage intensity) for different land management (crop types) and water scarcity (drought) scenarios using model averaging. Our results show that intensity of elephant damage (proportion of area damaged in an individual farm as a percentage) increased with crop palatability and land use conversion in the last similar to 30 years, particularly deforestation. Conversely, the intensity of elephant damage decreased with increasing human activity (higher proportion of settlements and farmland), and distance to waterbodies. Most farms affected by elephants (65 %) were at short distances (< 250 m) from waterbodies. We also predicted a significant increase of elephant crop damage intensity from 17 % when the farm is covered with no palatable crops, to 54 % and 63 % when palatable crops covered 50 % and 100 % of the farmland, respectively. For the predicted water stress scenario in which all small seasonal waterbodies would dry off, we predicted a 46 % reduction in the total area of farmland susceptible to damage although we expect an increase in human-wildlife competition for water. We conclude that land use changes and water availability strongly affect elephant crop damage. We hope these results contribute to the development and better implementation of management strategies that enhance long-term peaceful coexistence between humans and elephants.
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Keywords

Climate changeClimate-changeConservationCropCrop damageFood securityGlobal changeHabitat useHuman-wildlife conflictKibale national-parkLoxodonta africanaLoxodonta-africanaManagemenPlant preferencesPredictioPredictionTemporal patternsWildlife

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 14/74, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Biodiversity Conservation.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-25:

  • WoS: 5
  • Scopus: 8
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-25:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 72.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 68 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 4.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 6 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/92678/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 42
  • Downloads: 40
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Tanzania.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (MONTERO BOTEY, MARIA) and Last Author (PEREA GARCIA-CALVO, RAMON).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been MONTERO BOTEY, MARIA.

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Awards linked to the item

This work was supported by WWF Tanzania (Pachyderm fund) and Universidad Politecnicacnica de Madrid-Funded Research, Development and Innovation Programme (specifically the Funding for predoctoral contracts for the completion of doctoral degrees at UPM schools, faculties, and R&D & D centers) . This research was partly supported by the Grant Reference TED2021-129923B-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and, by the "European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR".
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