Rohan Arthur

rohan@ncf-india.org

Scientist, Oceans and Coasts

Ph.D.

My research interests concern issues of conservation, particularly the implications of climate change for marine ecosystems, the rational management of marine systems and fisheries in India, and the interface between policy, traditional practices, and ecosystem management. I have worked in several reef systems around India, and along the Kenyan coast. My chief concerns are in furthering the fledgling tradition of good field ecological research in marine environments in India, and in helping fill some of the significant gaps in the very basic knowledge we require to manage them. A long-held fascination for their aesthetic irresponsibility, together with generous helpings of inertia and serendipity, has drawn me to marine ecosystems and their conservation. I obtained my Master's degree in Wildlife Science from the Wildlife Institute of India in 1995. For my master's research I worked on coral community composition and its response to human disturbance in the intertidal reefs of the Gulf of Kutch in Northwest India. I am one of NCF's founder-trustees, and direct its reef program. I continue to be interested in reef community dynamics and disturbance, and my doctoral research focuses on the consequences of temperature-induced mass-mortality of coral on the reef systems of the Lakshadweep atoll reefs, Western India.

Projects

Publications

Journal Article

2022

Distribution of the Critically Endangered Giant Guitarfish (Glaucostegus typus) based on Local Ecological Knowledge in the Andaman Islands, India.

Book Chapter

2018

Narrative from Indian seas: Marine resource use, Ecosystem responses, and the accidents of history.

Journal Article

2017

Coping with catastrophe: foraging plasticity enables a benthic predator to survive in rapidly degrading coral reefs

Dataset

2016

Long-lived groupers require structurally stable reefs in the face of repeated climate change disturbances.

Popular Article

2016

Living with change: local responses to global impacts

Journal Article

2016

For traditional island communities in the Nicobar archipelago, complete no-go areas are the most effective form of marine managementFor traditional island communities, no-go areas are the most effective form of management

Journal Article

2016

"Choice" and destiny: The substrate composition and mechanical stability of settlement structures can mediate coral recruit fate in post-bleached reefs

Journal Article

2015

Seagrass Herbivory Levels Sustain Site-Fidelity in a Remnant Dugong PopulationSeagrass Herbivory Levels Sustain Site- Fidelity in a Remnant Dugong Population

Journal Article

2015

Sharing mechanisms in corporate groups may be more resilient to natural disasters than kin groups in the Nicobar Islands

Journal Article

2015

Erosion of Traditional Marine Management Systems in the Face of Disturbances in the Nicobar Archipelago

Journal Article

2014

Seagrasses in the age of sea turtle conservation and shark overfishing

Journal Article

2014

Long-lived benthic predators require structurally stable reefs in the face of repeated climate-change disturbances

Journal Article

2014

Positive interactions between Irrawaddy dolphins and artisanal fishers in the Chilika Lagoon of eastern India are driven by ecology, socio-economics and culture

Journal Article

2013

Long-Term occupancy trends in a data-poor dugong population in the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago

Journal Article

2013

Complex ecological pathways underlie perceptions of conflict between green turtles and fishers in the Lakshadweep Islands.

Journal Article

2013

Green turtle herbivory dominates the fate of seagrass primary production in the Lakshadweep islands (Indian Ocean)

Journal Article

2013

Greener pastures? High-density feeding aggregations of green turtles precipitate species shifts in seagrass meadows

Journal Article

2012

Distance-related thresholds and influence of the 2004 tsunami on damage and recovery patterns of coral reefs in the Nicobar Islands

Popular Article

2012

The fading of an invisible map

Journal Article

2010

Implications of conserving an ecosystem modifier: Increasing green turtle (Chelonia mydas) densities substantially alters seagrass meadows

Sequential overgrazing by green turtles causes archipelago-wide functional extinctions of seagrass meadows