Willow Battista

Willow Battista

Auto-generated profile, based on publicly available information

Willow Battista

Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, United States of America

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

6Years (2021-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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29 November 2021 in Fish and Fisheries
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
JMJulia G. Mason
Julia G. Mason
JEJacob Eurich
Jacob Eurich
JLJacqueline D. Lau
Jacqueline D. Lau
WBWillow Battista
Willow Battista
CFChristopher M. Free
Christopher M. Free
KKKristin Marie Kleisner
Kristin Marie Kleisner
In a changing climate, there is an imperative to build coupled social‐ecological systems—including fisheries—that can withstand or adapt to climate stressors. Although resilience theory identifies system attributes that supposedly confer resilience, these attributes have rarely been clearly defined, mechanistically explained, nor tested and applied to inform fisheries governance. Here, we develop and apply a comprehensive resilience framework to examine fishery systems across (a) ecological, (b) socio‐economic and (c) governance dimensions using five resilience domains: assets, flexibility, organization, learning and agency. We distil and define 38 attributes that confer climate resilience from a coupled literature‐ and expert‐driven approach, describe how they apply to fisheries and provide illustrative examples of resilience attributes in action. Our synthesis highlights that the directionality and mechanism of these attributes depend on the specific context, capacities, and scale of the focal fishery system and associated stressors, and we find evidence of interdependencies among attributes. Overall, however, we find few studies that test resilience attributes in fisheries across all parts of the system, with most examples focussing on the ecological dimension. As such, meaningful quantification of the attributes’ contributions to resilience remains a challenge. Our synthesis and holistic framework represent a starting point for critical application of resilience concepts to fisheries social‐ecological systems.

27 April 2022 in Nature
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
PDF file
CFChristopher M. Free
Christopher M. Free
RCReniel B. Cabral
Reniel B. Cabral
HFHalley E. Froehlich
Halley E. Froehlich
WBWillow Battista
Willow Battista
EOElena Ojea
Elena Ojea
SGSteven D. Gaines
Steven D. Gaines

6 September 2024 in Nature Ecology & Evolution
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
PDF file
TPThomas Pienkowski
Thomas Pienkowski
AJArundhati Jagadish
Arundhati Jagadish
WBWillow Battista
Willow Battista
Gloria BlaiseGloria Blaise
Gloria Blaise
ACAlec Philip Christie
Alec Philip Christie
MMMorena Mills
Morena Mills

20 December 2024 in Environmental Research Letters
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
MTMichelle Tigchelaar
Michelle Tigchelaar
ESElizabeth R Selig
Elizabeth R Selig
ASAli Sarhadi
Ali Sarhadi
JBJanaya Bruce
Janaya Bruce
EAEdward H Allison
Edward H Allison
STShakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted
Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted
Global nutrition targets remain unmet, as over half of preschool-aged children and two-thirds of non-pregnant women of reproductive age worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Climate change poses a growing threat to global food and nutrition security, but existing climate risk assessments often overlook the critical roles of both terrestrial and aquatic nutrient-rich foods that are vital for dietary diversity and micronutrient supply. In this study, we introduce an innovative framework that integrates data on future climate extremes, nutrient supply dependencies, and diet-related climate vulnerability. Our comprehensive analysis assesses nutrition-sensitive climate risk to five essential micronutrients across production systems. By mid-century (2041–2060), we estimate that 75% of calcium, 30% of folate, 39% of iron, 68% of vitamin A, and 79% of vitamin B12 produced in primary food products will face frequent climate extremes (at least every other year) globally. Nearly fifty countries are projected to face high domestic climate risk for two or more micronutrients during this period, with ten countries facing high risk across all five. We outline distinct climate risk profiles to offer data-driven entry points into strategies for bolstering the resilience of micronutrient supply chains and advancing progress toward global nutrient targets in the face of a changing climate.

15 July 2025 in Environmental Research: Food Systems
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
ABAbigail Bennett
Abigail Bennett
JMJulia G. Mason
Julia G. Mason
WBWillow Battista
Willow Battista
CFChristopher M Free
Christopher M Free
JGJessica A Gephart
Jessica A Gephart
JVJohn Virdin
John Virdin
Researchers and policymakers increasingly recognize the contribution of aquatic food systems, such as fisheries, to food security and nutrition. Yet governing fisheries for nutrition objectives is complicated by the multiple overlapping processes that shape availability and access to nutrients over time, including fishing sustainability, climate change, trade dynamics, and consumer preferences. Anticipating the effect of governance interventions to sustain or enhance nutritional benefits from fisheries entails accounting for these multiple interacting influences. We develop an analytical approach to link available data on aquatic foods production, nutrition, distribution, and potential climate impacts to evaluate the nutrition implications of fishery management and post-harvest allocation interventions. We demonstrate this approach using national and publicly available datasets for five case study countries: Peru, Chile, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, and Malawi. As examples, we evaluate the potential to enhance domestic supply of key nutrients to nutritionally-vulnerable populations by (a) dynamically adjusting fishing effort in response to climate impacts on fish stocks, and (b) retaining aquatic foods currently diverted via trade or foreign fishing. The results indicate substantial differences across countries in terms of anticipated climate change effects, with potential for substantially increased nutrition yield in Chile and Peru under adaptive management, vs more modest yield increases in Indonesia. The impacts of post-harvest allocation policies related to foreign fishing, exports, fishing sector, and subnational trade also vary, with exports weighing heavily on nutrient availability in Sierra Leone. This methodological approach represents a step toward operationalizing calls to manage fisheries as part of national food and nutrient supplies, in light of climate change risks.