Studying Nutrient Flows Across Tropical Forests and Savannas: A Collaborative Project

Tanaya Nair, a DPhil student in the Ecosystems Lab, has recently returned from extended fieldwork in India and Ghana. In a recent presentation titled ‘From Roots to Canopy: How Nutrients Move Through Tropical Forests and Savannas’, she shared early insights into her research on nutrient cycling dynamics in plants across tropical ecosystems.

Her work explores how nutrients like Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, etc., move through plants and soils, and how these processes are shaped by environmental conditions and consumers—such as rainfall, soil fertility, and disturbance (e.g., fire and herbivory). She is also looking at how biological interactions involving microbes, fungi, and invertebrates like termites shape these dynamics. By focusing on nutrient flows rather than static measurements across the whole plant (above and below-ground), Tanaya aims to better understand how ecosystem productivity is maintained under conditions of nutrient limitation.

Across a network of long-term research sites, including LEMoN plots in India and GEM plots in Ghana, Tanaya has collected a substantial dataset spanning savanna and forest systems. Her fieldwork has involved sampling leaves, wood cores, and roots, from trees and grasses contributing to a rich dataset across the tropics. She is now analyzing these samples in the lab to investigate patterns of nutrient uptake, use efficiency, and resorption across environmental gradients.

Tanaya, along with her fellow field collaborators, in the Western Ghats and Easten Ghats of India

The project is deeply collaborative, bringing together researchers, institutions, and field teams across multiple countries. Tanaya is supervised by Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Professor Sally Archibald, and Professor Kate Parr, and works closely with collaborators in India and Ghana. These include partners from the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, the Nature Conservation Foundation in India, as well the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. Her fieldwork in long-term plots across the Western Ghats and the Easten Ghats of India has been conducted in collaboration with local field assistants from tribal and indigenous communities, whose local knowledge supports ecological research in the region. Field teams across all sites play a central role in data collection and will be key contributors to the outputs of the project.

In Ghana, Tanaya works with collaborators across multiple GEM plots