Longterm Ecosystem Monitoring Plots: Climate change is the most horrific existential threat to the planet. We have no time but to act now itself! A lot of studies have been conducted on the impact of changing climate on different animal and plant species from the temperate part of the world. In-depth scientific studies addressing the effect of an altered climate should be done from the tropics as well since where it is having the most drastic and deleterious effects. Our group is mainly concentrating on the effect of drought, increased temperature on different ecosystems in the tropics. We also study the effect of the risen sea level on the tropical mangrove plants at organismal and ecosystem level. We are located in the foothills of Western Ghats(one of the biodiversity hotspots of the planet) and we have established 45 permanent forest plots for longterm monitoring. Our plots include a large 10 ha wet evergreen patch at Sholayar forest. The total area of longterm monitoring plots sum to 43 ha and we plan to expand to 50 ha in the sooner future. Our plots cover all types of ecosystems present in the Western Ghats and its coast. We welcome any collaborative efforts to understand the fundamental ecosystem processes in any of our plots. |