Our Research Areas

Invasive species threaten biodiversity and ecosystem processes with direct and indirect impact on human wellbeing. Encroachment of invasive plant species is a widespread phenomenon. Yet more and more significant progress needs to be made in identifying the invasion potential of these introduced species.

We are presently looking into:

• Understanding the trends of aquatic plant succession through inter-weed interaction studies.

• Impact of global climate changes on invasion potential of invasive plant species

Less than 1% non-native plant species introduced to a new region become invasive. Efforts towards reducing reliance on herbicides leads to an ecofriendly and sustainable approach of weed management called biological control. However living organisms are erratic in their control owing to wide range of reasons including climatic and ecological conditions. We look into enhancing the biocontrol control mechanism of weeds through wide range of studies.

We are presently looking into:

• •Isolation, identification and biocontrol potential of phytopathogenic fungi associated with weeds.

• •Enhancing biological control mechanism of weeds through integration of insects and fungal agents and understanding the ecological and biochemical interactions between them.

• Kingdom fungi (Eumycota) are estimated to comprise of about 1.5 million species of which only about 10% have been named and described. Its diversity is reflected by a wide range of metabolites they produce which follow various biosynthetic pathways. Some of the important metabolites include polyketides, sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, B-lactams, etc. Many of these compounds have their own unusual and unique biological activity which may be harmful, such as mycotoxins that include the highly carcinogenic aflatoxins and the toxic ergot alkaloids, or beneficial ones such as mycopesticides, penicillin and cephalosporins as antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals of commercial and environmental significance. Fungal metabolites can be divided into primary and secondary metabolites. Primary metabolites, which are the almost universally distributed compounds of intermediary metabolism and is directly, involved in common physiological function like normal growth, development, and reproduction. Whereas secondary metabolites are often bioactive, usually of low molecular weight, and are produced as families of related compounds at restricted parts of the life cycle, with production often correlated with a specific stage of morphological differentiation. The structure of many of these relatively low molecular weight compounds has been a challenge to much ongoing research in natural product chemistry but with the development of mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry with increasingly sophisticated methods of chromatography is opening new avenues for their development as natural products. The fungal metabolites can be much benign and innovative alternative to the escalating ecological and health-related problems caused by the synthetic chemicals currently used.

We are presently looking into:

• Studies on characterization of fungal metabolites as bioherbicide and other agricultural use for industrial production

Butterflies are excellent biodiversity indicators due to their specificity in ecological requirements such as temperature, humidity, food plants, and egg-laying congenial environment habitat. They are most likely to get affected by global climate changes and are hence used to predict various environmental alterations.

We are presently looking into:

• Impact of urbanization and other environmental changes on butterfly biodiversity

• Interaction between invasive plant species, native plant species and butterflies

Human-mediated global changes are drastically impacting the biological systems and are a major concern for the well-being and survival of many species. More than research interest, this comes from guilt of human activities on the environment. Working in this area we wish to accelerate awareness, enhance the interest of students to do research in the field of wildlife and conservation ecology. Short term internships are especially welcome if you wish to work with us in greenhouse/ lab and help study butterfly ecology and behavior under the impact of urbanization or work in the field looking into human-wildlife conflict, invasive- native species interactions, etc., basically if you are interested in studying species ecology and interactions. Will love to hear from you and if you would like to team with us to do our small bit in saving our biodiversity, basically safeguarding our own wellbeing in the process.