PhD Theses (SACON)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.168.202.180:4000/handle/123456789/138

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Southern India

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Study on Avian frugivory in Tropical Mixed Dry Deciduous and Scrub Forest in Southern India
    (SACON, 2012) Aruna, R.; Balasubramanian, P.
    Mutualistic plant-animal interactions exist in a wide variety with one of the most important being seed dispersal or the transport of seeds away from a parent plant by animals. Not only plants depend on animals for the dispersal of their seeds, animals, too, rely on plants for fruit as a food resource. Avian frugivores are considered the most important seed dispersers in several ecosystems, as assessed by the numbers of successful propagules disseminated. Fruit-eat in g birds play a critical role in the functioning of tropical ecosystems and may assist in the natural regeneration of forests by dispersing seeds into cleared areas. Seed dispersal by animals and frugivory have reached the pinnacle in tropical forests, where a percentage of up to 90% of tree and shrub species produce fleshy fruits adapted to animal dispers.:11 and eaten by a large number of vertebrates. In tropical forests, frugivorous animals are the dominant group of vertebrates. The challenge of frugivores is to find, eat and subsist partially or entirely on fruits that arc mostly deficient in protein, but rich in carbohydrates or lipids. Fruit availability is one crucial factor influencing the frugivore community. A study on frugivory by birds was carried out in two forest types namely, Tropical mixed dry deciduous forest in the Western Ghats and Scrub forest in the Eastern Ghats, Southern India. The research work was carried out in the tropical mixed dry deciduous forest of the Anaikatty hills of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Phyto-Ecology, Lion-Tailed Macaque, Macaca Silenus, Habitats, Southern India
    (SACON, 2002) Krishnamany, R; Kumar, Ajith
    The causal factors for the very high species diversity in tropical rainforests have been the focus of ecological research for several decades. It has become obvious that the high tropical species diversity has three major components, local (often called α-diversity), regional (β-diversity), and landscape (γ-diversity). Contribution of each of these components to overall diversity might vary from place to place, and from taxon to taxon. The pattern of variation in plant diversity is of particular interest since this would have a profound impact of the distribution and abundance of secondary consumers. In this study, I examine the nature and extent of spatial variation in the species diversity of woody plants in the rainforest of the Western Ghats Mountain ranges in south India, one among the eight most threatened biodiversity hotspots of the world. I also examine whether the diversity of food trees of the lion-tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), an endemic to the tropical rainforest of the Western Ghats and phylogenetically the ancestor of all extant Asian macaques, also show variation at different spatial scales that is similar to that of all wood plants. Since the phenology of plants also affects the secondary consumers, this issue is examined at one site