RESPONSE DIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM STABILITY IN THE WESTERN GHATS

Abstract

My thesis deals with the recently developed concept of response diversity, applying it to the Western Ghats of India. Simply put, this is a measure of the variation in organismal responses to the environment, and is thought to be a driver of ecosystem stability. I quantify this for the Western Ghats and also assess its relationship with stability directly. In doing so, my research becomes the first of its kind to apply this concept to the Western Ghats and joins a very small list of studies that empirically test the response diversity-stability relationship. My research found that response diversity does not track with traditional biodiversity measures in the Western Ghats. This is contrary to a priori expectations and warrants further examination. Furthermore, ecosystem stability also followed unexpected patterns, showing no relationship with two different diversity metrics. Combined, my results indicate lacunae in our understanding of both the diversity-stability relationship and the patterns of stability in the Western Ghats. By setting up the foundations, they open up multiple avenues for future analysis of stability and its drivers in the region