Browsing Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) by Title
Now showing items 27-46 of 89
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A Farewell to Arms : Dynamics of Interactions between the Unique Semi-myrmecophyte Humboldtia Brunonis (Fabaceae) and its Domatia-inhabitants in the Absence of Universal Protection Mutualism
(2017-12-10)Mutualistic interactions between species are balanced on a delicate scale of net benefits to both interacting partners. The dynamics of such interactions could change depending on the context in which these interactions ... -
Finding the Way Back Home : A study of Spatial Orientation, Navigation and Homing Behaviour in the Social Wasp Ropalidia marginata
(2018-05-23)For most of the animals, if not all, finding their way to a particular place is crucial for survival. To address this challenge of way-finding, different animals have evolved with different homing strategies. Social ... -
Fire Ecology of a Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest in Southern India
(2017-10-26)Fire ecology encompasses the study of the factors, biotic and abiotic, that influence the occurrence of fire in an area, as well as the effects fire has on the flora and fauna native and non-native to the region (Whelan ... -
For Queen and Country : Reproductive and Non-Reproductive Division of Labour in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp Ropalidia Cyathiformis
(2018-07-05)Division of labour is a hallmark of eusocial insects and is believed to be a major factor in their evolutionary success and ecological dominance. Division of labour can be of two kinds – reproductive division of labour ... -
Foraging Decisions of the Lesser False Vampire Bat, Megaderma Spasma in a Heterogeneous Landscape
Predators make various foraging decisions at different spatial and temporal scales. Such decisions can be studied at two levels: patch decisions at the landscape level, and prey decisions at the foraging patch level. In ... -
Game of Thrones : Direct Fitness through Nest Foundation in the Primitively Eusocial Wasp Ropalidia Marginata
(2018-07-09)Reproduction is the avenue for gaining direct fitness. But in certain species some individuals do not reproduce, instead gain indirect fitness by helping relatives to reproduce; the prime examples for this come from the ... -
Ground-dwelling arthropods across human land use: Interpreting the spatial and temporal dimensions of beta diversity
This study investigates beta diversity and its partitions to quantify the influence of different processes that drive spatial and temporal variation in ground-dwelling arthropod assemblages. First, ant assemblages across ... -
Habitat Acoustics And Microhabitat Selection In An Ensiferan Assemblage Of A Tropical Evergreen Forest │
(2013-08-29)Several animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, communicate using sound and they do so in a non-ideal medium, the habitat in which they live. As acoustic signals pass through the habitat, they suffer loss of information ... -
Host Location in Non-pollinating Fig Wasps of Ficus Racemosa : Age, Oviposition History and the Ovipositor
The fig–fig wasp system is a brood site pollination system where pollinators breed inside an enclosed globular inflorescence (syconium) that they pollinate. This pollination mutualism is subjected to exploitation by the ... -
The influence of landscape composition on butterfly populations: A behavioural ecological approach
Overall, taking behavioural ecological and trait-based approaches, my study suggests that the distribution of a species and patterns in its population densities in a landscape are affected by diverse ecological variables, ... -
Insights into an Evolutionary Radiation : Causes And Consequences of Diversification in the Western Ghats Bush Frogs
(2017-10-26)One of the biggest attractions of the tropics is its stunning diversity; the origin and determinants of this diversity are amongst the most important questions in evolution and biogeography. There are two ways of looking ... -
Intrasexual competition in females of a socially polygynous lizard, Psammophilus dorsalis
Competition between individuals of the same sex, intrasexual competition, has received much attention in males, mainly because such competition, which is primarily for mates (i.e. sexual selection), often selects for ... -
Intrinsic Noise in Collective Dynamics
Animal groups exhibit many emergent properties that are a consequence of local interactions. Linking individual-level behaviour to group-level dynamics has been a question of fundamental interest from both biological and ... -
Investigating Pattern Recognition And Bi-coordinate Sound Localization in the Tree Cricket Species Oecanthus Henryi
(2017-09-20)Acoustic communication, used by a wide variety of animals, consists of the signaler, the signal and the receiver. A change in the behaviour of the receiver after reception of the signal is a prerequisite for communication. ... -
Investigating the Impact of Habitat Disturbance and the Role of Functional Traits in a Tropical Butterfly Assemblage
(2018-07-09)Tropical habitats face a diverse range of anthropogenic threats. Two common and important threats to tropical biodiversity are invasive species and roads. Invasive plants are proposed to be a major threat to biodiversity ... -
Large Herbivore Dung Decomposition: Effects on Nutrient Cycling in a Tropical Forest of Southern India
Large herbivores can selectively feed on nutrient rich resources, resulting in regular deposition of high quality organic matter in the form of dung. In tropical forests such as in southern India it is estimated that large ... -
Lineage delimitation and diversification in Nyctibatrachus, an endemic frog genus from the Western Ghats
Determining how biodiversity is produced and maintained remains one of the fundamental questions in ecology. The phenomenon of diversification, which occurs via the interplay of speciation and extinction, holds the key ... -
Local Interactions, Spatial Patterns and Ecosystem Stability
Many ecosystems exhibit striking patterns in the spatial distribution of organisms, for example, patterns of clumping and dispersion in semi-arid vegetation, mussel in intertidal beds and even sea-grass and macroalgae. ... -
Mate Choice, Mate Sampling And Baffling Behaviour In The Tree Cricket Oecanthus henryi
(2017-07-12)Among the different sensory modalities that play a role in sexual selection, acoustic communication plays an important one. Acoustic communication has been known to be used for male-male competition (territory maintenance, ... -
Mathematical and Computational Modelling Investigations of the Role of Trait Variation in Savanna-Woodland Bistable systems
Over the last decade, several studies have shown the importance of individual variation in natural populations. Theoretical ecological studies are beginning to incorporate trait variations in models, but they continue to ...