The absence of alternative stable states in vegetation cover of northeastern India.

Globally, forests and savannah are shown to be alternative stable states for intermediate rainfall regimes. This has implications for how these ecosystems respond to changing rainfall conditions. However, we know little about the occurrence of alternative stable states in forest ecosystems in India.

Visual signal evolution along complementary color axes in four bird lineages.

Avian color patterns function in varied behavioral contexts, most being produced by only a handful of mechanisms including feather nanostructures and pigments. Within a clade, colors may not occupy the entire available space, and incorporating complementary colors may increase the contrast and efficacy of visual signals. Here, we describe plumage patterns in four ecologically and phylogenetically diverse bird families to test whether they possess complementary colors.

Inferring critical thresholds of ecosystem transitions from spatial data.

Ecosystems can undergo abrupt transitions between alternative stable states when the driver crosses a critical threshold. Dynamical systems theory shows that when ecosystems approach the point of loss of stability associated with these transitions, they take a long time to recover from perturbations, a phenomenon known as critical slowing down. This generic feature of dynamical systems can offer early warning signals of abrupt transitions.

Complete assembly of a dengue virus type 3 genome from a recent genotype III clade by metagenomic sequencing of serum.

Mosquito-borne flaviviruses, such as dengue and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), cause life-threatening diseases, particularly in the tropics. Here we performed unbiased metagenomic sequencing of RNA extracted from the serum of four patients and the plasma of one patient, all hospitalized at a tertiary care centre in South India with severe or prolonged febrile illness, together with the serum from one healthy control, in 2014. We identified and assembled a complete dengue virus type 3 sequence from a case of severe dengue fever.

Divergent morphological and acoustic traits in sympatric communities of Asian barbets.

The opposing effects of environmental filtering and competitive interactions may influence community assembly and coexistence of related species. Competition, both in the domain of ecological resources, and in the sensory domain (for example, acoustic interference) may also result in sympatric species evolving divergent traits and niches. Delineating these scenarios within communities requires understanding trait distributions and phylogenetic structure within the community, as well as patterns of trait evolution.

Higher speciation and lower extinction rates influence mammal diversity gradients in Asia.

Background: Little is known about the patterns and correlates of mammal diversity gradients in Asia. In this study, we examine patterns of species distributions and phylogenetic diversity in Asia and investigate if the observed diversity patterns are associated with differences in diversification rates between the tropical and non-tropical regions. We used species distribution maps and phylogenetic trees to generate species and phylogenetic diversity measures for 1° × 1° cells across mainland Asia.

Ecology driving genetic variation: a comparative phylogeography of jungle cat (Felis chaus) and leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in India.

Background: Comparative phylogeography links historical population processes to current/ecological processes through congruent/incongruent patterns of genetic variation among species/lineages. Despite high biodiversity, India lacks a phylogeographic paradigm due to limited comparative studies. We compared the phylogenetic patterns of Indian populations of jungle cat (Felis chaus) and leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis).