Nawal Shrestha, PhD
I earned my PhD in 2015 from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. Currently, I serve as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agriculture at Kathmandu University. Before joining Kathmandu University, I held several academic positions, including Research Associate (2023-2024) in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, Young Researcher (2019–2023) in the College of Ecology at Lanzhou University, and Postdoctoral Researcher (2015–2019) in the Institute of Ecology at Peking University. I am broadly interested in plant systematics, macroecology and conservation biology. My research focuses on investigating the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that underpin large-scale species diversity patterns and biodiversity conservation in the face of global changes.
Research Interests
In some places and groups, hundreds of species exist, whereas in others, very few have evolved and biologists are striving to understand why. This knowledge is important in understanding the response of species to future climate change and in developing effective in-situ conservation schemes for protecting threatened species/regions. My research focusses on finding the answers to this question through an eco-evolutionary perspective and applying the generated knowledge in assessing threats to species/regions and identifying key areas for species’ long-term conservation.
Selected
Publications
Koju L., Shrestha N.*, Raskoti B.B., Ale R., Ghimire N. and Shrestha S. (2023) Spatial patterns, underlying drivers and conservation priorities of orchids in the central Himalaya. Biological Conservation 283: 110121. Full Text
Yang Y., Bian Z., Ren G., Liu J. and Shrestha N.* (2022) Niche conservatism limits the distribution of Medicago in the tropics. Ecography 2022 (9): e06085. Full Text
Shrestha N.*, Xu X., Meng J. and Wang Z.* (2021) Vulnerabilities of protected lands in the face of climate and human footprint changes. Nature Communications 12: 1632. Full Text