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This Copy of the Thesis Has Been Supplied on Condition That Anyone University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2018 The biogeography and conservation status of the rocky plateaus of the northern Western Ghats, India. Thorpe, Christopher John http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/12826 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author's prior consent. THE BIOGEOGRAPHY AND CONSERVATION STATUS OF THE ROCKY PLATEAUS OF THE NORTHERN WESTERN GHATS, INDIA By Christopher John Thorpe A thesis submitted to Plymouth University in partial fulfilment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Biological and Marine Sciences University of Plymouth 2018 Acknowledgements The success of this five-year project is in no small way down to the forbearance, tolerance and consistent support of a small group of people. First and foremost, my fiancé, Julie Grange, who has not only put up with my absences on fieldwork in India, often with little contact for weeks at a time but has been an unswerving tower of strength and support. I cannot thank her enough. The project would not have even started without my Director of Studies, Mairi Knight, agreeing to supervise me back in 2012. In the intervening five years she has been cold and soaked to the skin collecting data on exposed rocky plateaus in India and read more than her fair share of my early attempts to write scientific papers. She has been a guiding light for me through my development as a researcher and I thank her for the knowledge and skills she has bought to the project. Dave Bilton as a co-supervisor persuaded me to add water beetles to the focal taxa, introducing me to a new group. The addition undoubtedly added considerably to the results in this thesis. His advice and guidance from the project conception to publication has been invaluable. Finally, but certainly not least, Aparna Watve who took me under her wing in 2012 and has guided and supported me through the intricacies of Indian biodiversity legislation ensuring the project was executed legally. Her, and her families, support has been much more though, once travelling overnight by bus to accompany me on a plateau survey. Without her and her husband Sanjay Thakur’s help it would have been impossible to carry out the work. The company of their son, Lohit, has added many lighter notes over the years. The amphibian fieldwork would not have been as successful without Todd Lewis. He was a tireless companion over two field seasons, thank you. Ably assisted at times by Dave Pryce and Lewis Davies, guided by Varad Giri, Nikhil Gaitonde and Anand Padhye. Stephan Porembski from Rostock, Germany, introduced me to inselberg ecology and the wonders of resurrection and carnivorous plants. I thank him for his insights to the world of rocky ecosystems. Working thousands of miles from my own university and in a different country introduces many problems. Not least is language and navigation, Aparna introduced me to Siddharth Kulkarni who became our general factotum on most field trips, photographed the beetle samples and collected many 1 ants for me. A huge thank you and I am pleased that he is now embarked on his own PhD in the USA. Through Aparna I have been introduced to many academics in India working in similar fields. They opened their laboratory doors to my team and helped with taxonomy, specimen storage and equipment loan. Hemant Ghate, Anand Padhye, Neelesh Dahanukar and Ramana Athreya all generously helped with laboratory space and equipment. Sayali Sheth helped with the early taxonomy of Coleoptera, Shruti Paripatyadar with hemipteran taxonomy, Sameer Padhye with large Brachiopoda and Ann Merin Domenic and Pronoy Baidya ant taxonomy. Mansi Mungee generously helped Aparna and I with the molecular work. Back in the UK Rob Puschendorf and Matt Fisher gave great clarity and guidance on the study of the pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Jane Ackerman not only lent much field equipment, some of which was returned in a rather wet condition but spent weeks in India helping at her own expense. Essential in the lonely PhD road are your fellow PhD students, they daily hear of your triumphs and disasters offering an invaluable sounding board and at times very sage advice; Rebekah Cioffi, Lorna Dallas, Laura Langan and Lee Hutt. There are many others who have helped make the study happen through support in and out of the field in India. Last of all Miguel Franco, who kindly agree to be my internal examiner, and Shonil Bhagwat my external examiner, thank you and I look forwards to discussing the outcomes! Thank you all. 2 Author’s declaration At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University award without prior agreement of the Doctoral College Quality Sub-Committee. Work submitted for this research degree at the University of Plymouth has not formed part of any other degree either at the University of Plymouth or at another establishment. To facilitate the study the author negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Plymouth and the Biome Conservation Foundation, Pune, India and was granted a licence to Access Biodiversity by the National Biodiversity Authority, Chennai, India. The author was awarded the Monica Cole Award in 2012 by the Royal Geographical Society with IBG. This study was self- financed with fieldwork supported by grants from the Royal Geographical Society with IBG, The Zoological Society of London and the Percy Sladen Memorial Trust. A programme of advanced study was undertaken, relevant scientific seminars and conferences were attended at which work was often presented; research field trips were undertaken; external institutions were visited for consultation purposes and several papers prepared for publication. 3 Publications: • Work from Chapter 2 was included in the pending publication C. J. Thorpe, D.T. Bilton, S. Kulkarni, J. Akerman, A. Watve, M.E. Knight. 2018. Islands within islands: the role of isolation, elevation and habitat in shaping water beetle assemblages across an archipelago of subtropical rocky plateaus. Submitted to Hydrobiologia on 19/07/2017. Author Contributions: CJT Designed and implemented the study and authored the paper: DTB assisted with study design, taxonomy and editing; SK assisted with fieldwork and logistics; JA assisted with data collection; AW assisted with permits and fieldwork; MEK assisted with study design, fieldwork and editing. • Work from Chapter 3 was included in the pending publication Christopher J. Thorpe, Todd R. Lewis, Siddharth Kulkarni, David Pryce, Lewis Davies, David T. Bilton, Aparna Watve and Mairi E. Knight. 2018. Drivers of amphibian distribution on the poorly understood rocky plateaus in the Western Ghats, India, biodiversity hotspot: implications for conservation. Submitted to Diversity and Distributions on 27/09/2017. Author contributions: CJT Designed and implemented the study and authored the paper: TRL assisted with the study design, data collection, taxonomy and editing; DTB assisted with study design; SK assisted and logistics; DP and LD assisted with data collection; DTB assisted with study design, taxonomy and editing; AW assisted with permits and fieldwork; MEK assisted with study design and editing. • Data in Chapter 3 has been published as: Pryce, D., C. J. Thorpe, S. Kulkarni and T. R. Lewis, 2016. Amphiesma stolatum (striped keelback): Habitat and reproduction. The Herpetological Bulletin 136: 37-38. 4 Author contributions: DP and TLR collected the data and drafted the paper; CJT designed the overall study, obtained permits and edited the paper; SK assisted and logistics. • Work from Chapter 4 has been published as: Christopher J. Thorpe, Todd R. Lewis, Siddharth Kulkarni, Aparna Watve, Nikhil Gaitonde, David Pryce, Lewis Davies, David T. Bilton, Mairi E. Knight. 2018. Micro-habitat distribution drives patch quality for sub-tropical rocky plateau amphibians in the northern Western Ghats, India. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0194810. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194810 Author contributions: CJT designed and implemented the study and authored the paper: TRL assisted with the study design, data collection, taxonomy and editing; DTB assisted with study design; SK assisted and logistics; DP and LD assisted with data collection; DTB assisted with study design, taxonomy and editing; AW assisted with permits and fieldwork; MEK assisted with study design and editing. • Work from Chapter 5 was published as: Christopher J. Thorpe, Todd R. Lewis, Matthew. C. Fisher, Claudia. J. Wierzbicki, Siddharth Kulkarni , David Pryce, Lewis Davies, Aparna Watve, Mairi E. Knight. 2017. Climate structuring of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in the threatened amphibians of the northern Western Ghats, India. Submitted to the Royal Society Open Science 6(5): 180211. ISSN 2054-5703. Author contributions: CJT designed and implemented the study and authored the paper: TRL assisted with the study design, data collection, taxonomy and editing; MCF and CJW helped with molecular analysis; DTB assisted with study design; SK assisted with logistics; DP and LD assisted with data collection; DTB assisted with study design, taxonomy and editing; AW assisted with permits and fieldwork; MEK assisted with study design and editing. 5 • Work from chapter 6 will be prepared for publication as: C. J. Thorpe, D.T.
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