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ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
@ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
380 followers 700 following 18 posts
Presidential Postdoc fellow @EEB_MSU @michiganstateu | PhD
@tamu | Naturalist | Ecology & conservation of tropical grassy biomes | he/him | https://ashishnerlekar.weebly.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted
lars-brudvig.bsky.social
New from lab alum @ashishnerlekar.bsky.social. Traditional Marathi compositions up to 800 years old illustrate the antiquity of west Indian savannas. They are ancient and important conservation targets, not relicts of colonial forest clearance

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Utilizing traditional literature to triangulate the ecological history of a tropical savanna
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 18, 2025 at 1:25 PM
ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a...
Ancient Literature Suggests India's Savannas Are Much Older Than Previously Thought
Plant species mentioned in texts from the past 800 years hint the wooded grasslands of western India have been there since ancient times, pushing back on the narrative that they are remnants of long-g...
www.smithsonianmag.com
December 7, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Reposted
rishpardikar.bsky.social
Cool paper documenting ecological insights about Indian tropical savannas in traditional literature between the 13th and 20th century. Grassland-scrubland biomes are often misconceived as deforested and/ or degraded wastelands. So, important paper.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Utilizing traditional literature to triangulate the ecological history of a tropical savanna
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 5, 2025 at 3:54 AM
ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
VERY excited to start my own lab today at @IISERPune!
Please check out our new website and keep an eye out for some cool #tropical #savanna #ecology research
sites.google.com/view/nsel/ho...
Nerlekar Savanna Ecology Lab
Welcome to our brand new lab at IISER Pune, India! We are on a curiosity-driven mission to understand the complex drivers of biodiversity and to provide solutions for halting the ongoing global biodi...
sites.google.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:51 AM
ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
🌟New Pub🌟! Out in @peopleandnature.bsky.social
Ecology meets Mythology: Medieval stories and songs uncover India’s ecological past. Link to paper: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... (click "MR" for Marathi abstract). @dhmsu.bsky.social
@msunatsci.bsky.social
1/n
November 25, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Reposted
botsocamerica.bsky.social
🔥🌱 The new #AJB Special Issue, “Understanding novel #fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches," is now online! 🌱🔥

This issue features studies from evolutionary, ecological, organismal, physiological, fire management & conservation perspectives.

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15372197...
Prescribed ecological burn conducted at Como in southeastern Queensland, Australia. Fires were implemented in either autumn or winter, and obligate seeding species were subsequently monitored over time to see if recovery differed with fire seasonality. The work was undertaken as a joint collaboration between the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium, Queensland Parks and Wildlife and HQ Plantations. (Photo credit: Mark Ooi.)
October 30, 2025 at 1:27 PM
ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
🔥🌾🦬New Pub in @botsocamerica.bsky.social ! We show that the flammability–palatability trade‐offs that operate in Africa also explain correlated suites of traits in #Texas #grasses.
@tamu.bsky.social
bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Grass functional traits reflect the long history of fire and grazers in the savannas of Texas
Premise Understanding relationships among grass traits, fire, and herbivores may help improve conservation strategies for savannas that are threatened by novel disturbance regimes. Emerging theory, ...
bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 11, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted
botsocamerica.bsky.social
🔥🌱 From the upcoming #AJB Special Issue: “Understanding novel fire regimes using plant trait‐based approaches" 🌱🔥

Grass functional traits reflect the long history of #fire & grazers in the #savannas of #Texas

By @ashishnerlekar.bsky.social et al.

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Functional strategies of 337 native Texas grasses in relation to grazing and fire.
March 11, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted
naomibschwartz.bsky.social
Out today in @biotropica.bsky.social: We show that deciduous dipterocarp and semi-evergreen forests in Cambodia have distinct species, but similar soils across their abrupt boundaries. But we see differences in fire history and fire adapted functional traits. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Seeing the Savanna Through the Trees: Vegetation Structure, Composition and Function Along a Forest‐Savanna Boundary in Cambodia
In the seasonally dry landscapes of continental Southeast Asia, deciduous dipterocarp vegetation (DDF), which resembles savanna, and semi-evergreen forests (SEF) form patchy landscape mosaics, with a...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 24, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted
rileypizza.bsky.social
New paper alert! @lars-brudvig.bsky.social, @nashturley.bsky.social and I reveal key context-dependent impacts of seed mix design decisions on restored prairie community structure!🌾 🧪 #PlantScience #EcologicalRestoration #ecosystem

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A picture of an experimental prairie restoration, and the field is mostly composed of Echinacea purpurea
January 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM
ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
137 of us share our concerns with policymakers in an open letter: "There are more than just trees and forests to be conserved and restored" nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
@plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social
Open letter: There are more than just trees and forests to be conserved and restored
Click on the article title to read more.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
ashishnerlekar.bsky.social
such a fascinating study!
pnas.org Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · Dec 27
Researchers challenged longhorn crazy ants and humans with the same task: maneuvering a T-shaped object through two consecutive open doorways. Single humans always outperformed single ants, but ant groups could beat human groups. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
A group of longhorn crazy ants (top) and a group of people (bottom) tackling scaled versions of the same geometrical maneuvering puzzle. CREDIT: Ofer Feinerman
December 27, 2024 at 9:07 PM
Reposted
lars-brudvig.bsky.social
Grassland restorations must better foster forbs to facilitate high biodiversity

Check out @ashishnerlekar.bsky.social's recent call for "forb-centric" grassland restoration

Message if you lack access and would like to a copy

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Grassland restorations must better foster forbs to facilitate high biodiversity
Grassland restoration efforts typically aim to recover lost biodiversity, guided by biologically diverse old-growth grasslands as a benchmark. In most old-growth grasslands, forbs greatly outnumber g...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 4, 2024 at 2:18 AM