Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES): Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-40 of 86
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Patterns and Drivers of Multimodal Signalling in Diurnal Geckos
Effective communication in animals comprise emission of a signal by a signaller and a response by a receiver, such that the interaction is beneficial to either only the signaller, or both the signaller and the receiver. ... -
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 ... -
Dynamic colour change in Psammophilus dorsalis: role of natural and sexual selection
Overall, the results from this study support the idea that animal signals arise from a balance between increased conspicuousness for social signalling and inconspicuousness to avoid predation risk. Animals that can change ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
Ecology of predator-prey interactions in the context of mate searching
Animals communicating in the context of mate searching benefit by increasing their likelihood of encountering mates. Mate searching begins the important process of individuals of opposite sexes forming pairs, which is ... -
Distribution, activity budget and feeding ecology of Himalayan gray langur (Semnopithecus ajax) in Kashmir Himalaya
Colobines are group of primates known to inhabit harsh environments. These habitats pose different challenges which they have coped up physiologically and behaviourally. Primates in such environments are subjected to ... -
Spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation- climate interactions
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 ... -
Understanding Rules of Assembly and Species Interactions in Mixed-species Bird Flocks
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 ... -
Multimodal Duetting and Pair Formation in a Paleotropical False Leaf Katydid, Onomarchus uninotatus
The spectacular diversity in the pair-formation strategies among animal groups has attracted the attention of many over the years. The roots of this diversity lie in the diversity of challenges that males and females face ... -
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 ... -
Systematics and Comparative Biogeography of Vine Snakes (Genus: Ahaetulla, Family: Colubridae) and Pit vipers (Genus: Trimeresurus, Family: Viperidae) in Peninsular India
The Indian subcontinent is a considered a mega biodiverse region with representative regions belonging to three of the 35 global biodiversity hotspots, including the Western Ghats in Peninsular India and the Eastern ... -
Systematics and Diversification in the Indian Radiation of Hemidactylus Geckos
Understanding the patterns and processes generating biodiversity is fundamental to ecology and evolutionary biology, and studying diversification can give us key insights into this process. In my thesis, I investigate ... -
Structure and Dynamics of a Tropical Dry Forest Plant Community
This thesis is spurred by the overarching question “why is a plant where it is in space and time?”, which, when asked in different global communities over the last century or so, has contributed to the development of general ... -
Spatial and Coevolutionary Dynamics of Cooperation
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 ... -
On Trait Evolution in a Heterogeneous Environment: Oviposition Site Selection in a Mosquito in Response to Multiple Risk Factors
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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
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 ... -
Stress Physiology of Free-ranging Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) : Influence of Ecological and Anthropogenic Stressors
(2018-07-09)Various ecological and human-induced disturbances play an important role in defining the health of an animal. To cope up with such threats or challenges to its homeostasis, an animal responds by secreting stress hormones ...