ISTerre seminar

---

Investigating inter-relationships between humans and the natural environment in deep time in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, southern India

Wednesday 12 November 2025 - 11h00

Ramya Bala Prabhakaran - National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru, India
--- 
The tropical biome of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve (NBR) in southern India, has seen human occupation for centuries (perhaps millennia), as evidenced by megalithic dolmens and a living heritage of over 6 protected vulnerable tribal groups. And this, despite being a biodiversity ‘hotspot’ of speciation in the world, boasting of over 3500 species (~1500 endemic). The NBR was established under the UNESCO ‘Man and the Biosphere Programme’ for sustainable development to protect both natural and cultural heritage. Despite intriguing legacies in global food habits (black pepper, cinnamon, mace and nutmeg) through the spice trade, very little of the human-forest interactions from prehistoric times is known from this region. Unlike other ancient peoples, forest-dwellers leave behind barely any material evidence. This leaves a large gap in our collective understanding of this ecosystem and its peoples – a gap we aim to fill through sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA), giving us access to unexplored dimensions on the peopling of NBR, and the creation of the ‘hotspot’ itself; by targeting DNA from mammals, including the Bengal tiger, believed to have populated southern India in the Holocene. A critical part of this project is to develop site-specific multi-DNA methods for application on tropical peat cores. Optimization of DNA metabarcoding approach in targeted wetland sites for assessing plant and mammal biodiversity will be achieved by (i) Literature review of DNA extraction methods, (ii) Identification of appropriate samples with diverse geochemical characteristics, and conducting tests, (iii) Analysis of results to establish the “best” method for DNA recovery and appropriate “multi-DNA” method for maximum taxonomic richness information from core samples. Our multi-DNA tests for improving capture of taxonomic richness (especially important in biodiversity hotspots) are original and innovative contributions with a wide potential for application in other tropical biomes, in contexts previously thought unsuitable for DNA studies but widely regarded as the first frontier of human civilizations and hotspots of biodiversity and speciation.

---

Organizing team : Minéralogie

Salle Dolomieu, Maison des Géosciences, 38400 Saint Martin d'Hères

Informations de visio :

Stanislav Jelavic is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Stanislav Jelavic’s Zoom Meeting
Time: Nov 12, 2025 11:00 AM Paris
Join Zoom Meeting
https://univ-grenoble-alpes-fr.zoom.us/j/95301414396?pwd=yj9aJvMNCT055kwIplYGgsQafc42tg.1

Meeting ID: 953 0141 4396
Passcode: 216668

— -

One tap mobile
+33186995831,,95301414396# France
+33170372246,,95301414396# France

— -

Join by SIP
• 95301414396 zoomcrc.com
Passcode: 216668

Join instructions
https://univ-grenoble-alpes-fr.zoom.us/meetings/95301414396/invitations?signature=yqbPNn-MO3D5HOekXW3jHvkD82kExMQ0ITUldD9HnMU