TITLE OF THE TALK- Untangling the mysteries of the montane shola-grassland ecosystems of the southern Western Ghats

 ABSTRACT- Today we know that the shola-grassland ecosystems in the upper elevations of the southern Western Ghats in India are ancient ecosystems, pleistocene relics that are naturally bi-phasic, with patches of stunted montane forests (sholas) set in a mosaic of rolling montane grasslands, and sharp boundaries between the two states. This was not always the case. When colonial foresters first chanced upon these ecosystems in the 19th century, they were enchanted by the emerald green downs and the cool climate that reminded them of home. But they were convinced, based on the presence of cattle herding local communities, seasonal fires and the abrupt shola-grassland boundaries, that the downs owed their presence to human agency. In this talk I will trace the history of how this misreading of the ecosystem led to a century of exotic tree planting in the grasslands; how our recent experiments demonstrate, surprisingly for such a tropical latitude, that rather than fire or grazing, it is winter frosts maintain these grasslands; and the unexpected gnarly ecological choices that we now face in our efforts to restore the endangered grasslands of these mosaics. I will conclude with the implications of what we have learnt in this ecosystem for widespread policies that promote tree-planting in grasslands (we shouldn't do it!)

BIO OF THE SPEAKER- Jayashree Ratnam is an ecologist at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, where she is the Director of the Wildlife Biology and Conservation Program. She is a community and ecosystems ecologist. Her research interests include the history, ecology, function and conservation of tropical savannas, forests and grasslands. She is especially interested in approaches that understand South Asian ecosystems as coupled human-natural ecosystems that need to be managed to simultaneously conserve their biodiversity, ecosystem functionality and the human livelihoods and cultures that they support.