Research Projects

Indian Sundarbans, the world's largest deltaic mangrove ecosystem, offer critical ecosystem services (ES) such as coastal protection, carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and cultural livelihoods. Despite this, restoration and conservation strategies remain disengaged from evolutionary diversity of the mangrove taxa and socio-economic valuation. This proposal addresses these gaps by integrating genomic, ecological, and socio-economic approaches to assess the relationship between phylogenetic diversity (PD) and ES delivery under climate change. The project will (i) spatially map key ES across ecological and anthropogenic gradients using remote sensing, modeling, and participatory assessments, (ii) evaluate community-level socio-economic dependencies and willingness to pay (WTP) for ES using contingent valuation and travel cost methods, (iii) generate a genome-informed phylogeny of dominant mangrove species using high-throughput sequencing and chloroplast genome analysis, (iv) link PD indices with ES delivery metrics under projected climate scenarios (v), and estimate the habitat suitability and ecosystem production for prioritization of mangrove restoration programs. Additionally, the project will synthesize the findings into a digital Web-GIS dashboard and policy brief to support biodiversity-informed conservation, adaptive restoration, and sustainable planning in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve. This work will generate novel, actionable insights at the biodiversity–ecosystem function–human wellbeing interface and contribute significantly to global frameworks on ecosystem-based adaptation and conservation planning.