Walk Into a Fragmented Forest
Credits & Bibliography
NCBS Research Team
Principal Scientist
Meghna Krishnadas
Post Doctoral Researchers
Ishrat ShaheenRohit SasidharanVincy K Wilson
PhD Scholars
Rishiddh JhaveriVinayak SainiShubhamSumashiniSarbariDhruboSaikat
Integrated PhD Scholars
Anamitra Biswas
Project Assistants
Anand MeharwadeAparna Lalit MishraAthulyaGayathriRadhika RajendraVarsha
Field Research Assistants
EbineshArulAshok
Master's Students
Aravindhan KPSheethalSruthi
Production Assistants · HereNow Studio
Sumedha NeyogiVishal NeyogiShyamanth S Kashyap
Bibliography
Ecology, Biodiversity & Pathogen Regulation
Levi, T., Barfield, M., Barrantes, S., Sullivan, C., Holt, R. D., & Terborgh, J. (2019). Tropical forests can maintain hyperdiversity because of enemies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 116(2), 581–586.Core source for: 200 Billion Deaths, The Exclusion Zone, The Paradox of Rarity
Sedio, B. E., & Ostling, A. M. (2013). How specialised must natural enemies be to facilitate coexistence among plants? Ecology Letters, 16(8), 995–1003.Core source for: Defence Space, Chemical Shields, Generalist vs. Specialist Pests
Janzen, D. H. (1970). Herbivores and the number of tree species in tropical forests. The American Naturalist, 104(940), 501–528.Foundational text: the original Janzen-Connell Hypothesis
Connell, J. H. (1971). On the role of natural enemies in preventing competitive exclusion in some marine animals and in rain forest trees. Dynamics of Populations, 298–312.Foundational text: the original Janzen-Connell Hypothesis
Yale School of the Environment. (n.d.). 'Cryptic' Interactions Drive Biodiversity Decline Near the Edge of Forest Fragments.
Mongabay India. (2018). Tussles between plants and their enemies drive forest fragment diversity.
Comita, L. S., et al. (2014). Testing predictions of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis: a meta-analysis of experimental evidence for distance- and density-dependent seed and seedling survival. Journal of Ecology, 102, 845–856.
Chemical Communication & Information Theory
Zu, P.-J., García-García, R., Schuman, M. C., Saavedra, S., & Melián, C. J. (2023). Plant–insect chemical communication in ecological communities: an information theory perspective. Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 61(3).Core source for: Information Arms Race, Zipf's Law in plant chemistry, Signal Rarity
Zipf, G. K. (1949). Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley Press.Foundational text: the mathematical law used to model the distribution of chemical signals
Biosemiotics, Phenomenology & Dark Ecology
Brier, S. (2008). The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics. Signs, 2, 20–81.Core source for: plants as sign-users, phytosemiotics, communication without a brain
von Uexküll, J. (1934). A Stroll through the Worlds of Animals and Men: A Picture Book of Invisible Worlds.Foundational text: the concept of the Umwelt and species-specific realities
Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press.Foundational text: framing habitat fragmentation as a Hyperobject
Morton, T. (2016). Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. Columbia University Press.Foundational text: complicity and being "inside" the disaster rather than observing it
Primary Field Data & Methodological Sources
Krishnadas, M., et al. (2018). Effects of forest fragment area on interactions between plants and their natural enemies: consequences for plant diversity at multiple spatial scales.
Krishnadas Lab. (n.d.). Kadamane Seedling Dynamics Research. GK Lab.
National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) Field Research (2026). Unpublished field recordings, morphological traits, and spatial census datasets from Kadamane Tea Estate, Western Ghats.
HereNow Studio (2026). Walk Into a Fragmented Forest: Conceptual and Generative System Brief. Abhishek Kapahi & Shreni Sanghvi.
Western Ghats · Kadumane Estate · Karnataka

Field Noteswalking into the forest

entering forest
depth into forest
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entering