Bungle in the Jungle: Understanding Bird Diversity Patterns in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Human activities have considerably altered biodiversity as well as the ecological processes underlying these patterns, resulting in both local and region-wide extinction. Birds, a diverse taxon, have offered a valuable opportunity to understand how biodiversity responds to climate change, habitat alterations and ecological degradation. Based on over 25 years of experience working on the problem of bird species survival in human-dominated landscapes, in varied geographies such as Sariska Tiger Reserve, Corbett Landscape and the Western Himalayas, Ghazala Shahabuddin will discuss the process of field-based ecological research: from natural history observations, hypothesis development, data collection and analysis and drawing inferences from ecological data. She will especially delve into the features that distinguish ecological research from lab-based science. She will discuss not only the difficulties of ecology, but equally, the joys of field-based ecology, that can be as rewarding as it is challenging.