Saket Sandeep Shrotri, PhD
Saket Sandeep Shrotri, PhD
Tropical Ecology and Evolution Lab,
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal
shrotris@iiserb.ac.in or saket1028@gmail.com
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Professional Experience
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, Fergusson College, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
Temporary position, clock hour basis (July 2024- December 2024)
Courses teaching: Fundamentals of Plant ecology (MSc-2nd year); Genomics and Evolution (BSc-3rd year); Mushroom
Cultivation (BSc-2nd year) and Community Engagement (BSc-2nd year).
Research Experience
Research Experience
PhD thesis: IISER Bhopal
Advisor: Dr Vinita Gowda (August 2018- May 2024)
A tale of three morphs: Ecological implications of floral colour polymorphism in a nocturnally pollinated ginger from Western Ghats, India
Fieldwork: Rocky plateaus of northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India.
MS thesis: IISER Bhopal
Advisor: Dr Vinita Gowda (August 2017- May 2018)
Pollination ecology of Curcuma caulina (Zingiberaceae): An endemic, night-flowering, polymorphic plant Fieldwork site: Kaas
Plateau, Satara, Maharashtra, India.
Fieldwork: Rocky plateaus of northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra, India.
Summer internships:
Advisor: Dr Kartik Shankar & Dr Navendu Page (May - June 2015)
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Species assessment, assigning conservation status and making species richness map For Western Ghats using GIS tools.
Advisor: Dr Vinita Gowda (May - July 2016)
IISER Bhopal
Study of periodic changes in the life cycle of seasonal herbaceous plant species of Kaas plateau, Maharashtra.
Advisor: Dr Vinita Gowda & Dr Preeti Saryan (May - July 2017)
IISER Bhopal
Reproductive ecological data collection and analysis for sympatric Hedychium spp. (Zingiberaceae) in North-Eastern India. (Lab work and Fieldwork)
Publications
Publications
Research articles:
Published:
Shrotri S., Kaur S., Dhargalkar R., Najla P. V., Gowda V. (2024). Mass flowering and flowering asynchrony characterise a seasonal herbaceous community in the Western Ghats (in press at Biotropica; pre-print: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.10.622833).
Shrotri S., Thackeray T., Page N. (2025) Memecylon coorgensis (Melastomataceae), a new species from the central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India (Edinburgh Journal of Botany https://journals.rbge.org.uk/ejb/article/view/2062).
Francila, F. A., Prasanna, N. S., Shrotri, S., Nawge, V., & Gowda, V. (2023). Life amidst debris: urban waste management affects the utilization of anthropogenic waste materials in avian nest construction. Tropical Ecology, 1-9 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-023-00302-z).
(Book chapter) Shrotri S., Singh P. 2016. Rauwolfia serpentina- an antihypertensive plant. Ethnomedicinal Plants: Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Profiles (ISBN: 9788177546620).
Submitted or In review:
Shrotri S., Kaur S., Nawge V., Sandhya S., Dandavate R., Gowda V. (2024). Revisiting Aristotle's observation on bees: High floral constancy is common among bees but it is shaped by the locally abundant flowering species (in review; submitted to Oecologia, Pre-print: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.28.614270).
Shrotri S., Gowda V. (2024) Pollinator bias and differential reproductive compatibilities maintain floral colour morphs in Curcuma caulina (Zingiberaceae), a night-flowering ginger from the Western Ghats, India (in review; submitted to New Phytologist, pre-print: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.21.614269).
Albal A., Azad G., Shrotri S., Gowda V. (2020) When to be a male? Role of resource-limitation and pollinators in determining floral sex in an andromonoecious spiderwort. (Pre-print: bioRxiv DOI: doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.06.138354)
In preparation:
Shrotri S., Gowda V. Trait-based discrimination between polymorphic flowers by nocturnal hawk-moth pollinators (in preparation).
Shrotri S., Gowda V. Pollinator-sensitive nectar replenishment in a nocturnal, mass flowering ginger Curcuma caulina (Zingiberaceae) from Western Ghats, India (in preparation).
Shrotri S., Gowda V. Back to definitions: Standardising terminologies that describe patterns in flowering phenology (in preparation).
Work presentations
Work presentations
Oral presentations:
February 2024; When does a bee switch? Understanding the profitability of non-constant foraging in pollinators through Agent-Based Modelling, at 39th M.P. Young Scientist Congress, Gwalior, India.
July 2023; Beyond appearances: Uncovering the complex geographic mosaic of floral colour polymorphism in nocturnally pollinated Curcuma Caulina (Zingiberaceae), at ATBC 2023, Coimbatore, India.
June 2023; When moths do maths: Discovery of pollination-responsive nectar replenishment and pollinator preference in a polymorphic ginger from the Western Ghats; at Understanding Behaviour 2023, IISER Kolkata, India. (Speed talk)
Mar 2023; Geographic mosaic in floral polymorphism: presenting a novel approach to study highly polymorphic ginger by integrating taxonomy and ecology; at International Seminar on Gingers, KSCSTE- Malabar Botanical Gardens and Institute for Plant Sciences, Kozhikode, India.
Jul 2020; Do grasslands show flowering synchrony? Quantifying the nature and shifts in mass-flowering on a plateau from the northern Western Ghats, India; at Botany 2020- a virtual botany conference.
Jan 2020; 'Chameleon grasslands' represent selection for synchrony in floral colour among plant communities' at Annual Biology Meet, IISER Bhopal.
Oct 2019; What's in the colour? Discovery of pollinator preference in polymorphic ginger (Curcuma caulina, Zingiberaceae) from sky-islands of Northern Western Ghats, India at Tropical Pollination Biology Meet, IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Sept 2019; Role of pollinator bias in maintaining floral polymorphism: A case study in endemic ginger from Northern Western Ghats of India Curcuma caulina (Zingiberaceae) at ATBC-AP 2019, Sri Lanka
Jul 2018; Can pollinator bias maintain floral polymorphism? 8th Zingiberales Symposium at Singapore Botanical Garden, Singapore.
Jan 2018; A Tale of Three Morphs: Correlating colour polymorphism with pollinator preference and pollen movement among three morphs in Curcuma caulina (Zingiberaceae) at Young Ecologist talk and Interact (YETI), Baroda, India.
Video presentations: (Selected)
June 2020; 'Travelling salesman amidst the city of flowers', submitted for an online event of Global Plant Council's PlantSciVid- online competition 2020. Link: https://twitter.com/saaaakeeeet/status/1272575771262038023?s=20
Jan 2020; 'Sky Islands of Northern Western Ghats: Big Stories from Small Places', submitted for an online event of ATBC short video contest 2020. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms7soGuKx8w
Jun 2019; 'Speciation via Competition' at Evolution Film Festival video contest, Evolution 2019 conference, Providence, RI, USA (Shortlisted in finalist and for screening) Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZG3VobGDVE
Jul 2018; 'How to outcompete your neighbours? Niche Exploitation in Sympatric Plants' 8th Zingiberales Symposium at Singapore Botanical Garden.
Poster presentations: (selected)
Jan 2019; 'What's your colour code? Discovery of pollinator preference in polymorphic ginger (Curcuma caulina, Zingiberaceae) from Kaas plateau' at Annual Biology Meet, IISER Bhopal.
Jul 2018; 'A tale of three morphs: Correlating colour polymorphism with pollinator preference and pollen movement among three morphs of Curcuma caulina' 8th Zingiberales Symposium at Singapore Botanical Garden. (Awarded: Best poster)
Dec 2017; 'A Tale of Three Morphs: Correlating Colour Polymorphism and Individual Fitness in three morphs of Curcuma caulina' at Conference on Evolutionary and Integrative Biology (CEIB), IISER Pune.
Jan 2017; 'Phenology of Herbaceous Plant Species of Kaas, Maharashtra at' at Annual Biology Meet, IISER Bhopal. (Awarded: Best Poster in UG category, 2nd place)
Jul 2015; 'Identifying Priority Areas for Conservation Using Species Distribution Modeling, in Western Ghats' at TCIS Summer Research Symposium, 2015, TIFR Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences (TCIS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, India.
Awards, Fellowships and Grants
Awards, Fellowships and Grants
IAPT travel grant to attend IBC, 2024 conference at Madrid, Spain
Indian Regional Association for Landscape Ecology (IRALE) sponsorship to attend the ATBC 2023 meeting at Coimbatore, India.
ATREE, India award for best talk at ATBC 2023, Coimbatore, India.
2nd place for best speed talk at Understanding Behaviour 2023, IISER Kolkata.
Dr. P. E. Rajasekharan award for the best paper presented in the theme ‘reproductive biology, ecology and conservation at International Seminar on Gingers, KSCSTE- Malabar Botanical Gardens and Institute for Plant Sciences, Kozhikode, India.
Equal Opportunity Grant to attend Ecological Society of America (ESA) joint conference at Montreal, Canada. (USD 800)
DST-INSPIRE fellowship to pursue doctoral research at IISER Bhopal. [INSPIRE stands for Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research] (INR 949,000; tenure 5 years).
Inlaks Ravi Sankaran Fellowship- small grant program 2020 (INR 1,97,100).
Heliconia Society International's (HSI) student research grant 2020 (USD 1000).
Sponsorship from ATREE, India to attend ATBC-AP meeting 2019 in Sri Lanka (USD 200).
Tan Jiew Hoe Fellowship to attend 8th Zingiberales Symposium at Singapore Botanical Garden in July 2018 (1000 SGD).
DST-INSPIRE Fellowship for Top 1% among the state in Higher Secondary School. August 2013 to April 2018
Participation on international platforms
Participation on international platforms
(Conferences, Schools and Workshops)
IBC 2024, Madrid, Spain
ATBC 2023, Coimbatore, India.
Botany 2020- A virtual botany conference in July 2020.
4th Bangalore School on Population Genetics and Evolution at ICTS (International Center for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR), Bangalore in January-February 2020.
Tropical Pollination Biology Meet at IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India in Oct 2019.
Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation: Asia-Pacific meeting 2019, Sri Lanka (ATBC-AP 2019)
Preparatory School on Population Genetics and Evolution at ICTS (International Center for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR), Bangalore in February 2019.
8th International Zingiberales Symposium at Singapore Botanical Garden in July 2018.
Conference on Evolutionary and Integrative Biology (CEIB), IISER Pune December 2017.
TCIS Summer Research Symposium, TIFR Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences (TCIS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, India, Jul 2015.
Asian Raptor Research Conservation Network Conference (ARRCN) 2014, IISER Pune, Feb 2014.
National Science Camp (VIJYOSHI) at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, December 2013.
Professional Membership
Professional Membership
Heliconia Society International (HSI)
Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC)
Indian Regional Association of Landscape Ecology (IRALE)
British Ecological Society (BES)
Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE)
Botanical Society of America (BSA)
Mentoring experience
Mentoring experience
(majorly towards fieldwork experiments for master's thesis work: UG level)
Rahul Dhargalkar (Thesis: A study of the temporal patterns in flowering phenology and plant-pollinator network of a grassland community in the northern Western Ghats, Maharashtra).
Viraj Nawge (Thesis: Understanding pollination networks in Kaas plateau).
Amal K Vyas: (Thesis: Pollinator competition and niche partitioning in congeneric sympatric Impatiens spp. (Balsaminaceae) in Kaas, Maharashtra).
Asawari Albal: (Thesis: When does a flower become male: Exploring role of ecological factors and energy resources in defining gender expression in sympatric plant).
Sooraj Krishnan P (Thesis: Understanding the flowering phenology and pollination ecology of ground orchids in Kaas plateau).
Najla P V (Thesis: Temporal patterns in flowering phenology and plant-pollinator network of a grassland community on Kaas plateau, Maharashtra).
Rohan Dandavate (Thesis: Pollination behaviour of Indian honeybee: understanding individual level pollinator specialization in Apis cerana indica.
Gangothri S (Thesis: Mass flowering and facultative sex espression: The role of mutualistic and antagonistic interactions in shaping the andromonoecious Murdannia simplex (Commelinaceae))
Krithjgnan Bharadhwaj (Thesis: Population genetics of the polymorphic species Curcuma caulina (Zingiberaceae)).
Leadership experience
Leadership experience
President for Botanical Society of America’s Student Chapter for India (Jan 2021 to Dec 2023).
Teaching experience
Teaching experience
Teaching Assistant (TA) for the course 'Fundamentals of cell biology' (BIO102X) at IISER Bhopal. The course is structured for the undergraduate level.
Evolutionary Ecology and Behavioural Biology course: Topics covered: 1. Competition- Lotka-Volterra model; 2. Optimal Foreging Theory and floral constancy (advanced-UG level; specialized course).
Teaching at Fergusson college: Fundamentals of plant ecology, Genetics and evolution, and Mushroom cultivation (see professional experience section).
Technical skills
Technical skills
Softwares/ programming: ArcGIS, QGIS, MaxEnt, R Programming, Basics of Python.
Languages: Can communicate easily in English, Hindi, and Marathi (Native language).
Other interests
Other interests
Trekking, photography, blogging, music and reading.
Reference
Reference
Dr Vinita Gowda,
Assistant Professor, Tropical Ecology and Evolution Lab, IISER Bhopal
Email: gowdav@iiserb.ac.in
Telephone: +91-755-6691417
Date of last update: 5th October 2024
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