Lyndon L. Wester
Associate Professor, Department of Geography;
Research Associate, Department of Botany, Bishop Museum
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1975
Geography Website
wester@hawaii.edu

Research Interests

The reordering of patterns of plant life by humans is the broad theme of my research. More particularly I have investigated the problem of adventive plants in Hawaii especially those which are invaders of communities composed mainly of native species. I have studied individual cases of particularly troublesome aliens plants and well the general patterns of introduction and establishment over the past two centuries. This has led me to projects involving weed mangement in critical habitats for rare species. I have conducted studies of historical vegetation change on the Juan Fernandez and also the atolls of the Northern Line Islands. I have had a long standing interest in mangroves and investigated their introduction and spread in Hawaii and their response to coastal change and purposeful mangement in Taiwan.

Most recently my work has been on the conservation of traditional wild foods which were once important supplements to diets for the people of Northeastern Thailand but are disappearing from the landscape as economic development proceeds.

Selected Publications

Knowledge of traditional food plants in Northeast Thailand, Tropical Forestry in the 21st. Century, Ethnobiology, 1997, 3:1:15.
Vegetation, In: Hawai'i: A Unique Geography, Joseph Morgan (Ed.) 1996, Bess Press, Honolulu.
Conservation of traditional food plants and economic development in Thailand, In: Contemporary Perspectives in Thai Foodways, Marilyn Walker and Gisele Yasmeen Eds.) The Center for Southeast Asian Research, Research Monograph 11, 1996, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Biological diversity and community lore in Northeastern Thailand, Journal of Ethnobiology 1995, 15:71-87 (with Sekson Yongvanit).
Adoption and Abandonment of Southeast Asian food plants, 1994, Journal of Home and Consumer Horticulture, (with Dina Chuensanguansat) 1:83-92.
Weed management and habitat protection of rare species: A case study of Marsilea villosa, 1994, Biological Conservation, 68:1-9
Mangroves and protection of the coastal zone of Taiwan, 1992, Geoforum, 23:507-519 (with Cheing-Tung Lee).
Vegetation history of Washington Island (Teraina), Northern Line Islands, 1992, Atoll Research Bulletin No. 358 (with James O. Juvik and Paul F. Holthus).
Origin and distribution of adventive alien flowering plants in Hawai'i, 1992, In: C.P. Stone, C.W. Smith and J.T. Tunison (Eds.), Alien plant invasions in native ecosystems of Hawai'i: management and research, pp. 99-154, Univ. Hawai'i Coop. National Park Resources Study Unit, Honolulu.
Invasions and extinctions on Masatierra (Juan Fernandez Islands): a review of early historical evidence. 1991, Journal of Historical Geography, 17:101-117
A checklist of the vascular flora of the Northern Line Islands, 1985, Atoll Research Bulletin, No. 287, 38 pp.
Roadside plants on Mauna Loa, Hawai'i, 1983, Journal of Biogeography, 10:307-316. (with J.O. Juvik).