Dr Michele Dani Sanchez
Caribbean TIPAs Project Coordinator
Department
Team
Specialism
Applied plant conservation, biogeography and population genetics of tropical species, mainly focused on the Caribbean UK Overseas Territories. Horticulturist with wide range of skills, specialized in controlled pollination, propagation and seed collection.
Biography
I work part-time in the UK and Islands team at Kew, in the Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) programme for the UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs). Our latest project, concluded in 2019, was 'Identifying and Conserving Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)'. We used scientifically robust data from field surveys and herbarium specimens to identify populations of the most threatened plant species, areas of exceptional botanical richness and threatened habitats in BVI. My main role is to help develop and write standards/methodologies which can be applied to other Caribbean countries in the future; carry out botanical surveys; process specimens; report and develop project interpretation for outreach. Previously I coordinated the Darwin Plus project 'Caicos pine forests: mitigation for climate change and invasive species' and participated in field trips to many of the UK Overseas Territories. My PhD at Birkbeck University of London and Kew was in population genetics and biogeography of the Caribbean pine. I worked in Kew's Horticulture Department from 2002-2020, having extensive experience with propagation and cultivation of tropical and temperate plants, controlled pollination and seed collection.
Qualifications and appointments
- PhD in Biology, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Certificate of Training in Botanical Horticulture, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK
- RHS Level 2 General Certificate in Horticulture, Royal Horticultural Society, London, UK
- BSc in Biology with an emphasis in Botany, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul State (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
Selected publications
The BVI TIPAs National Team (2019).
Retaining nature’s little secrets - A guide to the important plants and Tropical Important Plant Areas of the British Virgin Islands (T. Heller, ed.).
Dani Sanchez, M., Manco, B.N., Blaise, J, et al (2019).
Conserving and restoring the Caicos pine forests: The first decade.
Plant Diversity 41:75–83.
Malumphy, C., Bárrios, S., Corcoran, M. R., Sanchez, M. D., Harrigan, N., Monsegur, O. A., & Hamilton, M. A. (2019).
First report of invasive scale insects feeding on the threatened plants Calyptranthes kiaerskovii Krug & Urban and Calyptranthes thomasiana O.Berg in the British Virgin Islands.
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 155: 193-199(7).
Gargiulo, R., Pironon, S., Zheleznaya, E., Sanchez, M. D., Balázs, Z. R., Podar, D., … Fay, M. F. (2019).
Phylogeography and post‐glacial dynamics in the clonal‐sexual orchid Cypripedium calceolus L.
Journal of Biogeography 46: 526–538.
Hamilton, M. A. E., Manco, B. N. E., Sanchez, M. D. E., Pavlik, B., Barlow, S., Blaise, J., Avenant, A., Hornsby, B. & O'Brien, J. J. (2016)
Caicos Pine Recovery Project National Tree Restoration Strategy: 2016-2036 restoration strategy to secure the Caicos pine for future generations.
London, UK.
Green, P. W. C., Hamilton, M. A., Sanchez, M. D. & Fang, R. (2017).
Phenotypic plasticity in the emission of terpenes by a threatened pine species (Pinus caribaea var. bahamensis): effects of scale infestation and environment.
Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research.
Sanchez, M. D., Green, P. W. C., Martinez-Suz, L., Dentinger, B. T. M., Ainsworth, M., Davies, R., Balding, S., Pavlik, B. & Barlow, S. (2016)
Caicos Pine Recovery Project Scientific Data and Results: Sampling and analyses undertaken.
In: M. D. Sanchez & M. A. Hamilton (Eds.), (pp. 80pp). London, UK.
Sarasan, V., Buord, S., Pellicer, J., Sanchez, M., Cowan, R. S. & Lesouëf, J.-Y. (2016)
Approaches to develop a road map for the long-term conservation of an island endemic genus Cylindrocline.
Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 38, 1-10.
The BVI TIPAs National Team (2019).
Identifying and Conserving Tropical Important Plant Areas in the British Virgin Islands (2016-2019): Final Technical Report (p. 163; M. Dani Sanchez, C. Clubbe, & M. A. Hamilton, Eds.). p. 163.
Sanchez, M., Ingrouille, M. J., Cowan, R. S., Hamilton, M. A. & Fay, M. F. (2014)
Spatial structure and genetic diversity of natural populations of the Caribbean pine, Pinus caribaeavar. var. bahamensis (Pinaceae), in the Bahaman archipelago.
Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 174(3), 359-383.
Projects
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Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) in the British Virgin Islands (BVI)
Identifying key sites for plant and habitat conservation in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
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Identifying and conserving resilient habitats in the British Virgin Islands
Informing conservation of globally threatened biodiversity by identifying forest habitats resilient to natural disasters in the British Virgin Islands.