Rebecca Kariuki

Postdoctoral Research Scholar,

School of Sustainability

rebecca.kariuki@asu.edu

ROB AND MELANI WALTON CENTER FOR PLANETARY HEALTH Tempe, AZ 85287
Mail code: 7904

Campus: Tempe
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Long Bio

Dr. Rebecca Kariuki is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Sustainability in Arizona State University. She is also an African Academy of Science Affiliate and was a 2022 Climate Change Fellow at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Rwanda and a 2021 Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany.

Dr. Kariuki’s research centers around social-ecological systems, conservation, and water management in East and southern Africa landscapes. Broader themes that her research focuses’ on include: 1) understanding the causes and consequences of land use change around protected areas; 2) use of knowledge coproduction, environmental modelling, and scenario planning to explore desirable and sustainable futures for biodiversity-rich areas; and 3) exploring the potential of nature-based solutions to address sustainability challenges. She collaborates with researchers and practitioners from the USA, UK, Sweden, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, and Botswana to address her research interests. Prior to joining Arizona State University, Dr. Kariuki did postdoctoral research at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), Tanzania and the University of York, UK. She also worked as a consultant for the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), Kenya and the University of York, UK.

Education

PhD. Environmental Geography, University of York, United Kingdom.

MSc. Biology of Conservation, University of Nairobi, Kenya

BSc. Chemistry and Zoology, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Research Website URL

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Kariuki-2

Publications

Kariuki, R.W., Capitani, C., Munishi, L.K., Shoemaker, A., Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., William, N., Lane, P.J. & Marchant, R., 2022. Serengeti’s futures: Exploring land use and land cover change scenarios to craft pathways for meeting conservation and development goals. Frontiers in Conservation Science, p.92.

Wilkinson, J. L., Boxall, A. B., Kolpin, D. W., Leung, K. M., Lai, R. W., Galbán-Malagón, C., Adell, A. D., Mondon, J., …Kariuki, R., …Sims, D.B., Figy, M.,Good, D. & Teta, C. (2022). Pharmaceutical pollution of the world’s rivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(8).

Kariuki, R. W., Munishi, L. K., Courtney-Mustaphi, C. J., Capitani, C., Shoemaker, A., Lane, P. J., & Marchant, R. (2021). Integrating stakeholders’ perspectives and spatial modelling to develop scenarios of future land use and land cover change in northern Tanzania. PloS One, 16(2), e0245516.

Kariuki, R. W., Western, D., Willcock, S., & Marchant, R. (2021). Assessing interactions between agriculture, livestock grazing and wildlife conservation land uses: A historical example from East Africa. Land, 10(1), 46.

Courtney-Mustaphi, C., Kariuki, R. W., Shoemaker, A., Munishi, L., Ekblom, A., Marchant, R., & Lane, P. (2021). Understanding Land Use and Land Cover Changes in Northern Tanzania. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien SSEA-SGAS

Newman, R. J. S., Capitani, C., Courtney-Mustaphi, C., Thorn, J. P. R., Kariuki, R., Enns, C., & Marchant, R. (2020). Integrating insights from social-ecological interactions into sustainable land use change scenarios for small Islands in the western Indian ocean. Sustainability, 12(4), 1340.

Mustaphi, C.J.C., Capitani, C., Boles, O., Kariuki, R., Newman, R., Munishi, L., Marchant, R. and Lane, P., 2019. Integrating evidence of land use and land cover change for land management policy formulation along the Kenya-Tanzania borderlands. Anthropocene, 28, p.100228.

Kariuki, R., Willcock, S., & Marchant, R. (2018). Rangeland livelihood strategies under varying climate Regimes: Model insights from Southern Kenya. Land, 7(2), 47.

Marchant, R., S. Richer, C. Capitani, C. Courtney-Mustaphi, M. Prendergast, D. Stump, S. Wynne-Jones, O. Boles, D. Wright, C. F. Vazquez, J. Lejju, C. Lang, P. Lane, A. Kay, L. Phelps, D. Fuller, M. Widgren, P. Punwong, N. Boivin, M. Gaillard-Lemdahl, K. Morrison, J. Kaplan, J. Benard, A. Crowther, A. Cuní-Sanchez, G. de Cort, N. Deeres, J. Farmer, L. Gillson, E. Githumbi, T. Kabora, R. Kariuki, R. Kinyanjui, E. Kyazike, H. McParland, V. Muiruri, C. Mumbi, R. Muthoni, A. Muzuka, E. Ndiema, C. Nzaba, D. Olago, I. Onjala, A. P. Schrijver, N. Petek, A. Reid, S. Rucina, C. Shipton, A. Shoemaker, S. Thornton-Barnett, G. van der Plas, L. Watson, and D. Williamson (2018) Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa: human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present. Earth-Science Reviews, 178, 322-378

Githumbi, E.N., Kariuki, R., Shoemaker, A., Courtney-Mustaphi, C.J., Chuhilla, M., Richer, S., Lane, P. and Marchant, R., 2018. Pollen, people, and place: multidisciplinary perspectives on ecosystem change at Amboseli, Kenya. Frontiers in Earth Science, 5, p.113.

Kariuki, R., Marchant, R., & Willcock, S. (2018). Ecosystem services in Africa, in The Routledge Handbook of African Development ed. Tony Binns, Kenneth Lynch and Etienne Nel (Abingdon: Routledge).

Courtney-Mustaphi, C. J., Shoemaker, A. C., Githumbi, E. N., Kariuki, R., Muriuki, R. M., Rucina, S., & Marchant, R. (2015). Historical ecology perspectives of changes in Amboseli, Kenya. GLP, 12, 26-29.

Expertise Areas

Climate Change

Ecosystem Ecology

Geographic Information Science