Hundreds of Millions of People in the Tropics Need Both Wild Harvests and Other Forms of Economic Development for Their Well-being

Geoff J. Wells, Casey M. Ryan , Anamika Das, Suman Attiwilli , Mahesh Poudyal , Sharachchandra Lele , Kate Schreckenberg , Brian E. Robinson , Aidan Keane , Katherine M. Homewood , Julia P.G. Jones , Carlos A. Torres-Vitolas , Janet A. Fisher , Sate Ahmad , Mark Mulligan , Terence P. Dawson , Helen […]
Forest carbon market-based mechanisms in India: Learnings from global design principles and domestic barriers to implementation

Anirban Roy, Manan Bhan Ecological Indicators | December 13, 2023 Forest carbon markets (FCMs) have emerged as a significant means to direct resources toward urgent climate action that can mobilize a large set of actors and catalyze funding toward reducing deforestation and promoting sustainable forest management. Here, we conduct a critical qualitative review of global […]
Mapping Invasive Alien Plants Through Citizen Science: Shortlisting Species of Concern for the Nilgiris

Shiny Mariam Rehel, R.S. Reshnu Raj, Samuel Thomas, Milind Bunyan, Anita Varghese & Ankila J. Hiremath Journal of Threatened Taxa | November 26, 2023 Species introduced from elsewhere are known as alien species. They may be introduced as crop plants or ornamental plants, or for timber. A small proportion of introduced species can become invasive thereby spreading […]
Tillage agriculture and afforestation threaten tropical savanna plant communities across a broad rainfall gradient in India

Ashish N. Nerlekar, Avishkar Munje, Pranav Mhaisalkar, Ankila J. Hiremath, Joseph W. Veldman Journal of Ecology | November 23, 2023 Across various land-use types—old-growth savannas, tree plantations, tillage agriculture, and agricultural fallows—consistent declines in native species richness and cover were observed, with tillage agriculture showing the most significant changes. The new study by Ashish Nerlekar […]
Tillage agriculture and afforestation threaten tropical savanna plant communities across a broad rainfall gradient in India

Ashish N. Nerlekar, Avishkar Munje, Pranav Mhaisalkar, Ankila J. Hiremath, Joseph W. Veldman Journal of Ecology | November 23, 2023 The consequences of land-use change for savanna biodiversity remain undocumented in most regions of tropical Asia. One such region is western Maharashtra, India, where old-growth savannas occupy a broad rainfall gradient and are increasingly rare due to agricultural conversion […]
Phylogeographical patterns are governed by geography in endemic polymorphic snail Indrella ampulla

Sudeshna Chakraborthy, Maitreya Sil, Abhisikta Roy, H N Poorna Bhat, Anwesha Saha, Surya Narayanan, Aravind N.A. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | November 21, 2023 Genetic diversity within a species can be shaped by abiotic factors, such as climate and geography. We aimed to ascertain the relative importance of these two abiotic factors to Indrella […]
Environmental impacts beyond land use and conservation risk hotspots: Coffee and tea

Kamaljit S. Bawa and Jianguo Liu PNAS- Ecology | November 20, 2023 New paper compares the production and consumption of coffee and tea, the most common beverages after water. Both coffee and tea are grown in humid tropical and subtropical regions on lands that once supported the most diverse natural ecosystems in the world. Expanding […]
A new genus and two new species of Braconinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from the Oriental region

Ranjith AP, Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan Zootaxa | November 18, 2023 A new genus of Braconinae, Pseudorhadinobracon Ranjith & van Achterberg, is described based on the species (P. luteus (Szépligeti) gen. et. comb. nov.) earlier classified under the genus Rhadinobracon Szépligeti. Additionally, the genus Rhadinobracon is newly reported from the Oriental region with the description of two new species from India, R. levigatus Ranjith and R. nitidus Ranjith. […]
Phylogeny of freshwater mollusc genus Brotia H. Adams, 1866 (Gastropoda: Pachychilidae) from north-east India

Anushree Jadav, Surya Narayanan, Chinta Sidharthan, Aravind N.A. Invertebrate Systematics | November 17, 2023 he pachychilid genus Brotia H. Adams, 1866, distributed across South and South-East Asia, comprises 46 currently accepted species. Although Brotia has recently been revised, the systematic treatment of the Indian species requires further scrutiny. This study aims to resolve the phylogenetic relationships between Brotia species from north-east […]
Predation on a House Gecko, Hemidactylus sp., by a Spotted Supple Skink, Riopa punctata (Linnaeus 1758)

Ryan Satish, Manoj Kumar, Jayshree Borgohain, Rohan Sharma, Naveen M Reptiles and Amphibians | November 16, 2023 Skinks are known to be opportunistic predators (e.g., Suranjan Karunarathna and Thasun Amarasinghe 2010; Manicom and Schwarzkopf 2010; Civantos et. al. 2013). However, relatively few reports document the diets of skinks, especially predation on other reptiles (Attum et […]