(C) Nehal Gurung
The Western Ghats is one of the oldest mountain chains and has played an important role in the differentiation of the flora and fauna in Asia. While there have been several taxonomic studies highlighting the diversity, over 60% of the woody plants being endemic, and its drivers in the region, few studies have examined the woody plants in a phylogenetic framework. Given their age and gradient in historical and current climatic stability, the Western Ghats are an ideal system to examine the patterns and drivers of evolutionary diversity, assembly, and diversification of woody plants. For select genera, I plan to generate robust phylogenies, which will provide a strong evolutionary framework to understand the biogeographic history and diversification trends of these clades and shed light on how the past processes have shaped the extant woody diversity. The results of the studies will help in understanding how diversity originated and is shaped in these ancient mountains and will further our understanding of the role of mountains in shaping diversity. The results from my first chapter indicate the southern Western Ghats as both a museum and cradle of diversity (Gopal et al. 2023; Proceedings of Royal Society: B; 10.1098/rspb.2022.2513). My subsequent chapters build on these results by examining clade-wise patterns of biogeography and diversification. Using the select clades as case studies, the thesis aims to shed light on how past processes have shaped the extant diversity in this biodiversity hotspot. Additionally, it demonstrates the roles that mountains play in the persistence of lineages and as an engine for diversity.
This is Abhishek Gopal's PhD project, assisted by Madhumithraa NR, in collaboration with Dr Navendu Page.
Funding:
CCMB start-up funds to JJ
British Ecological Society (BES) Small Research Grant to AG
ATBC Seed Research Grant to AG
Graduate Student Research Award from the Society for Systematics Biology (SSB) to AG
Publications:
Gopal, A., Page, N., Kumar, A., Tiwari, N., Sundaresan, V., Joshi, J. 2025. In-situ diversification and regional attributes shape asymmetric diversity of Miliusa (Annonaceae) in Tropical Asia. bioRxiv, Under Review.
Gopal, A., Bharti, D. K., Page, N., Dexter, K. G., Krishnamani, R., Kumar, A., Joshi, J. 2023. Range restricted old and young lineages show the southern Western Ghats to be both museum and cradle of diversity for woody plants. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 290: 20222513. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2513