Manjari Jain

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali

Animal vocal communication ranges from simple to complex based on repertoire size, structure and composition of calls and the information encoded in them. It is expected that social species will possess a functionally and structurally complex vocal repertoire. While several studies on mammalian systems exist supporting this, evidence from avian sys...

Ectotherms are sensitive to changes in ambient temperature that impact their physiology and development. To compensate for the effects of variation in temperature, ectotherms exhibit short or long-term physiological plasticity. An extensive body of literature exists towards understanding these effects and the solutions ectotherms have evolved. Howe...

In this study, we examined the temporal variation in calling activity of a field cricket, Acanthogryllus asiaticus on a diel and seasonal scale. We also examined the acoustic structure of calls produced in the context of mating, namely, long distance mating call (LDMC), courtship call and post copulatory call. Finally, we examined the allometric re...

Fish inhabiting human-dominated ecosystems are prone to altered sensory environments in which they must live and function. Increased turbidity is one such change that they must deal with. We tested whether an increase in water turbidity and the presence of visual landmarks (coloured stones) affect the foraging efficiency of wild zebrafish. We also...

A rain forest dusk chorus consists of a large number of individuals of acoustically communicating species signaling at the same time. How different species achieve effective intra-specific communication in this complex and noisy acoustic environment is not well understood. In this study we examined acoustic masking interference in an assemblage of...

In the tropics, animal-mediated seed dispersal is the most frequently occurring dispersal syndrome, which includes traits that aid in attracting both diurnal and nocturnal dispersers. However, some plants bear fruits with special traits that make them less conspicuous to diurnal frugivores to make them exclusively available to nocturnal frugivores...

Time is an important and limited resource that can drive the trade-off between various essential activities in the lives of animals. Group-living social birds are likely to be constrained for time as they need to perform individual behaviours required for sustenance but also participate in group activities. They must, therefore, partition the avail...

Time is an important and limited resource that can drive the trade-off between various essential activities in the lives of animals. Group-living animals need to perform different behaviour to meet their individual needs and also participate in group activities. They must, therefore, partition the available time between these activities which may v...

The genus Teleogryllus is known from 52 species distributed worldwide, of which India is home to 11 species. We update Teleogryllus diversity by describing a new species, T. rohinae Jaiswara & Jain sp. nov., from Kerala, India. In addition, we revise the description of the two widespread Teleogryllus species, i.e., T. mitratus (Burmeister, 1838) an...

There are multiple measures for bird song complexity such as repertoire size, phonological or compositional syntax and complex vocal mechanism (CVM). We examined these in an old-world passerine, Purple Sunbird. First, we identified and acoustically characterised the repertoire size (of notes and phrases). We then assessed positional fidelity and or...

Ectotherms are sensitive to the changes in ambient temperature with respect to their physiology and development. To compensate for the effects of variation in temperature, ectotherms exhibit physiological plasticity which can be for short or long term. An extensive body of literature exists towards understanding these effects and the solutions ecto...

Animal vocal communication ranges from simple to complex based on repertoire size, structure, and composition of calls and the information encoded in them. According to the social complexity hypothesis, communication complexity tends to increase with an increase in social complexity. While several studies on mammalian systems exist supporting this,...

The Western Ghats of India is among the top 25 bio-diversity hotspots in the world. About 43% of the re-ported 117 bat species in India are found in this region, but few quantitative studies of bat echoloca-tion calls and diversity have been carried out here thus far. A quantitative study of bat diversity was therefore conducted using standard tech...

Rainforest canopies provide a unique ecosystem that harbor a staggering diversity of animals. Yet, they are perhaps the least explored biological frontiers primarily due to their inaccessibility. In this chapter we present glimpses of our research, carried out in the rainforests of Kudremukh National Park in southern India that have bearing on cano...

Low frequency sounds are advantageous for long-range acoustic signal transmission, but for small animals, they constitute a challenge for signal detection and localization. The efficient detection of sound in insects is enhanced by mechanical resonance either in the tracheal or tympanal system before subsequent neuronal amplification. Making small...

In species-rich assemblages, differential utilization of vertical space can be driven by resource availability. For animals that communicate acoustically over long distances under habitat-induced constraints, access to an effective transmission channel is a valuable resource. The acoustic adaptation hypothesis suggests that habitat acoustics impose...

1. Habitat selection is a universal aspect of animal ecology that has important fitness consequences and may drive patterns of spatial organisation in ecological communities. 2. Measurements of habitat selection have mostly been carried out on single species and at the landscape level. Quantitative studies examining microhabitat selection at the co...

Foliage density and leaf area index are important vegetation structure variables. They can be measured by several methods but few have been tested in tropical forests which have high structural heterogeneity. In this study, foliage density estimates by two indirect methods, the point quadrat and photographic methods, were compared with those obtain...

The distribution, secondary production, and calcium:tissue (Ca:tissue) ratio in relation to limno-chemical factors were studied in a freshwater limpet ( Septaria lineata) population from the west bank of the River Hooghly, West Bengal, India, for 2 successive years. Total hardness, chloride, pH, and phosphate were shown to be significant in Pearson...

We evaluated trained listener—based acoustic sampling as a reliable and non-invasive method for rapid assessment of ensiferan species diversity in tropical evergreen forests. This was done by evaluating the reliability of identification of species and numbers of calling individuals using psychoacoustic experiments in the laboratory and by comparing...