Research

Our lab investigates how biotic interactions shape biodiversity across nested scales of organization—from landscapes and ecological communities to populations, individuals, and individual host-associated microbes. Insects are uniquely powerful for such eco-evolutionary inquiry: they represent the most diverse animal group on Earth, occupy nearly every conceivable niche, and play pivotal roles in pollination, decomposition, trophic dynamics, and signalling networks. Within insects, we focus primarily on Ensiferans (crickets and katydids), which provide an exceptionally versatile system for ecological and evolutionary research. They are among the most acoustically rich insect groups, relying heavily on sound for mate attraction, competition, and predator avoidance. This makes them ideal for probing how communication networks respond to both classical ecological drivers such as temperature, humidity, habitat structure, and canopy cover, and novel anthropogenic pressures such as climate warming, noise pollution, artificial light at night, and invasive species. Their acoustic signals are easily measurable, their behaviours are experimentally tractable, and their populations can be maintained in the lab for long-term evolutionary studies. Ensiferans thus serve as a powerful bridge between field ecology, behavioural biology, neurophysiology, and experimental evolution, allowing us to connect processes across scales with unusual clarity.

Landscape, Community Structure, and Biodiversity Assessment

Research Question: How do classical ecological factors and novel anthropogenic drivers—such as temperature, humidity, habitat structure, anthropogenic noise, artificial light at night (ALAN), climate warming, and invasive species—shape insect acoustic communities and biodiversity patterns?

At the landscape and community scale, we combine field-based biodiversity surveys with the development of machine learning pipelines for automated acoustic and image-based species identification, enabling scalable and fine-resolution biodiversity monitoring. By integrating acoustic community metrics, diversity indices, and niche overlap analyses, we examine how communities assemble across environmental gradients and under novel pressures. Invasive species are treated as powerful ecological drivers that restructure communities, alter competitive hierarchies, and generate new selective landscapes. This integration of classical field ecology with computational tools allows us to create predictive models of how ecological networks reorganize under global change.

Image Credit: Souradeep Dutta

Population and Evolutionary Scale

Research Question: What is the evolutionary potential of acoustic traits in Ensiferans under novel selective pressures such as anthropogenic noise?

At the population level, we investigate the evolutionary potential of acoustic traits in Ensiferans exposed to novel selective pressures. Using long-term experimental evolution in controlled acoustic environments, we quantify the heritability and plasticity of traits such as call frequency, call rate, and responsiveness to acoustic stimuli. By combining quantitative genetics with neurophysiological assays, we are able to forecast adaptive trajectories and disentangle the relative contributions of genetic inheritance and phenotypic plasticity to evolutionary change.

Image Credit: Siddharth

Individual Behaviour, Sexual Selection, and Tool Use

Research Question: How do individuals optimise communication and reproductive strategies under ecological and social constraints, including the use of tools?

At the individual scale, our research focuses on how organisms optimise communication and reproductive strategies under ecological and social constraints. We study mate choice, alternative reproductive tactics, and state-dependent signalling to understand how individuals balance the costs and benefits of sexual signalling, mating gifts, and tactic switching. A particularly novel dimension of this work is our study of tool use in the tree crickets. Males of this species construct leaf baffles to amplify their calls, and our research explores how they monitor and optimise these acoustic tools. By combining behavioural assays, field observations, and game-theoretical modelling, we reveal how individuals dynamically adjust their strategies to maximise reproductive success.

Image Credit: Atish Bhattacharya

Symbiosis, Invasion Ecology, and Microbial Mediation

Research Question: How do host–microbiota interactions and invasive species as novel selection forces mediate ecological specialisation, adaptation, and potential speciation?

At the scale of symbiosis and invasion ecology, we ask how host–microbiota interactions and invasive species shape ecological specialisation and evolutionary trajectories. By integrating molecular approaches such as 16S rRNA sequencing and metagenomics with ecological and evolutionary modelling, we explore the genetic, epigenetic, and microbial mechanisms underlying host–plant adaptation. Invasive species are treated not only as disruptors of native ecosystems but also as catalysts of evolutionary innovation, reshaping host–plant–microbe interactions and driving ecological divergence.

Image Credit: Arman Singh Jaryal

Together, these research questions scaffold a multi-scale program that spans landscapes, populations, individuals, and microbial symbioses. Importantly, the ecological principles we apply at the landscape and community scale —such as community assembly rules, diversity indices, and niche overlap—are equally powerful when applied to microbial communities within hosts. By treating the gut microbiome as a “community within,” we extend the same frameworks across scales, revealing how microbial interactions influence host adaptation and, in turn, how these adaptations reshape macroscopic ecological communities. This creates a closed conceptual loop, where principles of community ecology unify processes from microbes to landscapes, demonstrating that biodiversity is governed by nested, interdependent systems.

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