Ecology of Western Ghats

Western Ghats are the mountain ranges on the west coast of southern India, one of the most diverse biodiversity hotspots in the country. The region harbours many habitats from 800m to 2600m.

Members of BEER Lab have been working in different habitats of the Western Ghats, studying fire, herbivory,  dispersal, invasion and nutrient dynamics. This work is mainly limited to the quantitative ecology of plants and plant-animal interactions, while seldom considering restoration science. 

Ongoing Projects

People Associated

Publications

• Niranjana, L., Krishnan, A., Murali, A., Raman, T.R.S., Mudappa, D., Sankaran, M. & Kohli, M. Insect herbivory on restored rainforest seedlings weakened by neighbours but unaffected by invasive coffee. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.18.665266

• Joshi, A. A., Ratnam, J., Paramjyothi, H. & Sankaran, M. (2024). Climate and vegetation collectively drive soil respiration in montane forest-grassland landscapes of the southern Western Ghats, India. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 40, e16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266467424000142

• Joshi, A. A., Ratnam, J., & Sankaran, M. (2020). Frost maintains forests and grasslands as alternate states in a montane tropical forest–grassland mosaic; but alien tree invasion and warming can disrupt this balance. Journal of Ecology. 108 (1), 122-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13239

• Joshi, A. A., Sankaran, M., & Ratnam, J. (2018). ‘Foresting’ the grassland: Historical management legacies in forest-grassland mosaics in southern India, and lessons for the conservation of tropical grassy biomes. Biological Conservation. 224, 144-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.05.029

• Raghurama, M., & Sankaran, M. (2021). Restoring tropical forest–grassland mosaics invaded by woody exotics. Restoration Ecology. 29 (8). https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13491

• Raghurama, M., & Sankaran, M. (2022). Invasive nitrogen-fixing plants increase nitrogen availability and cycling rates in a montane tropical grassland. Plant Ecology. 223 (1), 13-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-021-01188-4

• Sriramamurthy, R. T., Sankaran, M., & Bhalla, R. S. (2022). Wildfires and aliens: differenced Normalized Burn Ratios (dNBR) indicate that woody invasive plants increase fire intensities in montane forest-grassland mosaics of the Western Ghats, India. In Research Square. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1382178/v1

• Sriramamurthy, R. T., Bhalla, R. S., & Sankaran, M. (2020). Fire differentially affects mortality and seedling regeneration of three woody invaders in forest–grassland mosaics of the southern Western Ghats, India. Biological Invasions. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-020-02207-7

• Tiruvaimozhi, Y. V. & Sankaran, M. (2019). Soil respiration in a tropical montane grassland ecosystem is largely heterotroph-driven and increases under simulated warming. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. 276, 107619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.107619