Biology subjects

Biniwale, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Biniwale, S..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

A large-scale crowd-sourced annotated acoustic dataset of Indian fauna

Global rates of biodiversity loss warrant conservation action and monitoring at large geographic scales. Conservation technologies such as acoustic monitoring in conjunction with deep learning now enable us to monitor wildlife simultaneously across space and time. However, for a significant proportion of biodiversity in tropical regions, we cannot yet rely on automated recognition approaches because we lack acoustic templates to robustly train deep learning algorithms. In this paper, we relied on a novel participatory approach, enlisting researchers, conservation practitioners, and nature enthusiasts to create a unique crowd-sourced, open-access dataset of acoustic annotations across taxonomic groups for biodiversity in India. Our dataset comprises 3311 minutes of strongly labelled data (bounding boxes or annotations for a species vocalization) and 2504 minutes of weakly labelled data (indicating the presence of a species within an audio file but lacking bounding boxes) for 518 species across India, spanning 25 of 36 states and union territories. We present metadata and code for data processing and highlight the strengths of a participatory approach to biodiversity monitoring.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Chronic disturbance of moist tropical forests favours deciduous over evergreen tree communities across a climate gradient in the Western Ghats

It is well established that climatic factors such as water stress and chronic anthropogenic disturbances such as biomass extraction influence tropical forest tree community structure, richness and composition. However, while the standalone effects of these two drivers on plant communities are well-studied, their interactive effects are not. Moist tropical forests in Indias Western Ghats face a dual threat from increasingly erratic precipitation (and consequent water stress), and an intensifying anthropogenic footprint. Here, we sampled 120 tree plots (0.05 ha each) across forests with varying histories of biomass extraction and a gradient in climate water deficit (CWD, a proxy for water stress) within a 15,000 km2 landscape in the northern Western Ghats and examined whether and how disturbance history modulates relationships of tree community structure and composition with climate. As expected, tree species richness increased with decreasing water stress in less- and historically-disturbed forests but remained low in repeatedly-disturbed forests. The increase in evergreen species richness with decreasing water stress was far slower in repeatedly-disturbed forests than other categories, and the relative abundance of evergreens in the repeatedly-disturbed forests (25%) was half that in less-disturbed forests (50%) of comparable water stress in the driest parts. Overall, we show that disturbance can amplify threats from climate change to wet forest-associated evergreen tree species, many of which are threatened, while benefiting more widely distributed dry forest-associated deciduous species. In the northern Western Ghats, where much of the remaining forest cover is disturbed and dominated by deciduous tree species, the persistence of evergreen tree flora hinges on protecting existing evergreen forest patches from future disturbances and restoring locally appropriate evergreen species in secondary forests.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

Conservation value of low-elevation forests for birds in agroforestry-dominated landscapes in a biodiversity hotspot

O_LIProtected areas (PAs) and multi-use landscapes beyond PAs play important and complementary roles in conserving global biodiversity. Across the tropical forest biome, remnant forests and agroforestry plantations in mixed-use landscapes often have high taxonomic diversity, but their ability to sustain functionally and phylogenetically diverse assemblages and retain conservation-priority species is unclear. Additionally, our understanding of impacts of land-use change across species, function and communities is poor. C_LIO_LIIn Indias Western Ghats (WG) biodiversity hotspot, like in many other tropical regions, PAs cover just 12% of the land and are concentrated in higher elevations. Here, in an approximately 15,000 km2 landscape in the northern WG, we compared bird communities across six land-use categories: state-owned high-elevation PAs and low-elevation Reserved Forests beyond PAs, and privately-owned periodically clear-felled low-elevation forests and three types of low-elevation agroforestry plantations (cashew, mango, and rubber). C_LIO_LIWe sampled 184 line transects totalling 137.5 km across habitats, compared taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity metrics and used joint species distribution models to test for species-trait-habitat associations. C_LIO_LIForests in general and lowland forests in particular had higher taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity, and higher occurrence probabilities of evergreen forest-affiliated, conservation-priority, and frugivores than agroforestry plantations. The ranking of land-use types varied across indicators, with rubber ranking higher than cashew and mango for functional and phylogenetic diversity but lower in species occurrence probabilities. C_LIO_LISynthesis and Applications: Our findings underscore the irreplaceability of less-disturbed forests for birds in mixed-use landscapes, especially when considering multiple dimensions of biodiversity, habitat specialists, and conservation-priority species. We advocate the simultaneous examination at multiple levels (community, species and traits) to determine the impacts of land-use change as divergent information of conservation importance is gleaned from each level. Reserved and private forests of low elevations of the Northern Western Ghats are critical for avian conservation, given that they harbour significant diversity, and the absence of representative PAs in the region. Given the vulnerability of these low-elevation forests to conversion for non-forestry activities and overexploitation for fuelwood, there is a need to develop viable models of partnership with landowners in these multi-use landscapes for ecological restoration of degraded forests. C_LI

ecology↗