In this thesis, I tried to understand the patterns and processes of vegetation trends at different spatial scales and resolution. The spatial variability in vegetation trends was related to inter and intra-annual changes ...

In mixed-species bird flocks (flocks hereafter), participants vary in their degree of similarity with each other. Flock participants can gain group size (supplementary) benefits by choosing similar flock partners, or ...

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 ...

Phoresy is the dispersal of small organisms on larger ones to move out of an unfavourable habitat. Although these interactions are transient, they can form tight links with mutualistic interactions if the phoretic organisms ...

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 ...

Dispersal has important ecological and evolutionary consequences for a species. Marine dispersal is unique because of facilitation by ocean currents, where oceanography interacts with species traits and environmental ...

Cooperation is ubiquitous across taxa in the animal kingdom. For example, microbes cooperate in producing antibiotic-resistant biofilms, mammals and birds collectively mob predators, and humans cooperate in utilization of ...

A focus in evolutionary biology is to understand the drivers of diversity in animal behavioural traits in the living world. Animals facing similar problems in the environment, such as the problem of how much to invest in ...

Mutualism involves exchange of services and rewards between the partners, resulting in a net benefit to all those involved. In many mutualisms, hosts are larger partners that interact with several individuals of smaller ...

Migration is a behavioural strategy that species use to deal with seasonal variation in climate and resources. A common form of migration is elevational migration, which is a short-distance movement undertaken by mountain ...