Earth and Biosphere Institute

Jayashree Ratnam
Facilitator and Research Fellow

RESEARCH INTERESTS I obtained my Ph.D (2002) in the Biological Sciences from Syracuse University, USA. I then worked as a research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratories in Colorado State University, USA. My research interests span a wide range of topics from behavioural and conservation biology to community and ecosystems ecology. My current work explores the nutrient ecology of arid and semi-arid ecosystems, specifically, the linkages between soils, plants and herbivore communities in these systems as mediated by the movements of macro- and micro-nutrients across trophic levels. I am also working with the RAINFOR group in the Geography Department here at the University of Leeds to analyze foliar nutrient responses of Amazon tree communities to recent droughts in that region.

j.ratnam@leeds.ac.uk

PUBLICATIONS

• Ratnam J.. (2008) Geographical range and abundance of the Andaman Day gecko Phelsuma andamanense Blyth 1860 (Gekkonidae, Sauria). (In press, Tropical Zoology).

• Ratnam J., Sankaran M, Hanan NP, Grant CC and Zambatis N. (2008) Nutrient resorption patterns of plant functional groups in a tropical savanna: variation and functional significance Oecologia 157(1): 141-151

• Sankaran M., Ratnam J. & Hanan N. P. (2008) Woody cover in African savannas: the role of resources, fire and herbivory. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 17 (2): 236-245

• Sankaran M., Hanan N.P., Scholes, R.J., Ratnam J., Cade B.S. et al. (2005) Determinants of woody cover in African Savannas. 2005. Nature, 438: 846-849.

• Sankaran M., Ratnam J. & Hanan N.P. (2004) Tree grass coexistence in savannas revisited – insights from an examination of assumptions and mechanisms invoked in existing models. Ecology Letters 7: 480-490.

• Ratnam, J. (2002) Ecological and social correlates of foraging decisions in the Bonnet macaque Macaca radiata in Primates in the New Millenium, Proceedings of the XVIIIt h Congress of the International Primatological Society , Adelaide, Australia.

• Ratnam, J. (2002) Ecological and social determinants of foraging in a group living primate: implications for predicting responses of social species to habitat change, in Tropical Ecosystems: Structure, Diversity and Human Welfare , K. N. Ganeshaiah, R. Uma Shaanker, K. S. Bawa (eds.), Oxford & IBH Publishing, New Delhi, pp 722-723.

• Ratnam, J. (1994) Status and natural history of the Andaman Day Gecko Phelsuma andamanense. Dactylus. 2(2): 59-66.

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