Dr Sreekar Rachakonda
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of the Environment
ECR Representative - Community and Research
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science
Sonter Lab
Researcher biography
Sreekar's research focuses on using ecological theory to inform conservation decision making. He is interested in a broad range of topics, including spatial conservation planning, evidence-based conservation policy, community assembly rules, extinction synergies, and land-use management. A big question that drives his research is how to address the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. His current research is centred around studying the environmental risks associated with mining and mineral processing.
He serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Ecology and has spent the past 15 years at universities across Australia, China, Czechia, India and Singapore. Sreekar is an avid birder and enjoys this aspect of his work both professionally and recreationally.
Book Chapter
Lim, Junying and Sreekar, Rachakonda (2024). Turnover. Encyclopedia of biodiversity. (pp. 739-753) edited by Samuel M. Scheiner. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-822562-2.00076-1
Journal Articles
Sivault, Elise, Kollross, Jan, Jorge, Leonardo Re, Finnie, Sam, Diez‐Méndez, David, Fernandez Garzon, Sara, Maraia, Heveakore, Lenc, Jan, Libra, Martin, Murakami, Masashi, Nakaji, Tatsuro, Nakamura, Masahiro, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Sam, Legi, Abe, Tomokazu, Weiss, Matthias and Sam, Katerina (2024). Insectivorous birds and bats outperform ants in the top‐down regulation of arthropods across strata of a Japanese temperate forest. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93 (11), 1622-1638. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14146
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Koh, Lian Pin, Lamba, Aakash, Mammides, Christos, Teo, Hoong Chen, Dwiputra, Adrian and Zeng, Yiwen (2024). Conservation opportunities through improved management of recently established protected areas in Southeast Asia. Current Biology, 34 (16), 3830-3835.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.031
Hua, Fangyuan, Wang, Weiyi, Nakagawa, Shinichi, Liu, Shuangqi, Miao, Xinran, Yu, Le, Du, Zhenrong, Abrahamczyk, Stefan, Arias-Sosa, Luis Alejandro, Buda, Kinga, Budka, Michał, Carrière, Stéphanie M., Chandler, Richard B., Chiatante, Gianpasquale, Chiawo, David O., Cresswell, Will, Echeverri, Alejandra, Goodale, Eben, Huang, Guohualing, Hulme, Mark F., Hutto, Richard L., Imboma, Titus S., Jarrett, Crinan, Jiang, Zhigang, Kati, Vassiliki I., King, David I., Kmecl, Primož, Li, Na, Lövei, Gábor L. ... Elsen, Paul R. (2024). Ecological filtering shapes the impacts of agricultural deforestation on biodiversity. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 8 (2), 251-266. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02280-w
Teo, Hoong Chen, Tan, Nicole Hui Li, Zheng, Qiming, Lim, Annabel Jia Yi, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Chen, Xiao, Zhou, Yuchuan, Sarira, Tasya Vadya, De Alban, Jose Don T, Tang, Hao, Friess, Daniel A. and Koh, Lian Pin (2023). Uncertainties in deforestation emission baseline methodologies and implications for carbon markets. Nature Communications, 14 (1) 8277, 1-10. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44127-9
Watson, James E. M., Venegas‐Li, Ruben, Grantham, Hedley, Dudley, Nigel, Stolton, Sue, Rao, Madhu, Woodley, Stephen, Hockings, Marc, Burkart, Karl, Simmonds, Jeremy S., Sonter, Laura J., Sreekar, Rachakonda, Possingham, Hugh P. and Ward, Michelle (2023). Priorities for protected area expansion so nations can meet their Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework commitments. Integrative Conservation, 2 (3), 140-155. doi: 10.1002/inc3.24
Lamba, Aakash, Teo, Hoong Chen, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Zeng, Yiwen, Carrasco, Luis Roman and Koh, Lian Pin (2023). Climate co-benefits of tiger conservation. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 7 (7), 1104-1113. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02069-x
Hazell, Richard J., Sam, Katerina, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Yama, Samson, Koagouw, Wulan, Stewart, Alan J. A. and Peck, Mika R. (2023). Bird preferences for fruit size, but not color, vary in accordance with fruit traits along a tropical elevational gradient. Ecology and Evolution, 13 (2) e9835, 1-19. doi: 10.1002/ece3.9835
Teo, Hoong Chen, Raghavan, Srivatsan V., He, Xiaogang, Zeng, Zhenzhong, Cheng, Yanyan, Luo, Xiangzhong, Lechner, Alex M., Ashfold, Matthew J., Lamba, Aakash, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Zheng, Qiming, Chen, Anping and Koh, Lian Pin (2022). Large‐scale reforestation can increase water yield and reduce drought risk for water‐insecure regions in the
Asia‐Pacific. Global Change Biology, 28 (21), 6385-6403. doi: 10.1111/gcb.16404
Zheng, Qiming, Siman, Kelly, Zeng, Yiwen, Teo, Hoong Chen, Sarira, Tasya Vadya, Sreekar, Rachakonda and Koh, Lian Pin (2022). Future land-use competition constrains natural climate solutions. Science of the Total Environment, 838 (Part 3) 156409, 156409. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156409
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Zeng, Yiwen, Zheng, Qiming, Lamba, Aakash, Teo, Hoong Chen, Sarira, Tasya Vadya and Koh, Lian Pin (2022). Nature-based climate solutions for expanding the global protected area network. Biological Conservation, 269 109529. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109529
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Si, Xingfeng, Sam, Katerina, Liu, Jiajia, Dayananda, Salindra, Goodale, Uromi, Kotagama, Sarath and Goodale, Eben (2021). Land use and elevation interact to shape bird functional and phylogenetic diversity and structure: implications for designing optimal agriculture landscapes. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58 (8), 1738-1748. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.13927
Sam, Katerina, Kovarova, Eliska, Freiberga, Inga, Uthe, Henriette, Weinhold, Alexander, Jorge, Leonardo R. and Sreekar, Rachakonda (2021). Great tits (Parus major) flexibly learn that herbivore-induced plant volatiles indicate prey location: an experimental evidence with two tree species. Ecology and Evolution, 11 (16), 10917-10925. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7869
Huang, G., Sreekar, R., Velho, N., Corlett, R. T., Quan, R. -C. and Tomlinson, K. W. (2020). Combining camera-trap surveys and hunter interviews to determine the status of mammals in protected rainforests and rubber plantations of Menglun, Xishuangbanna, SW China. Animal Conservation, 23 (6), 689-699. doi: 10.1111/acv.12588
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Sam, Katerina, Dayananda, Salindra K., Goodale, Uromi Manage, Kotagama, Sarath W. and Goodale, Eben (2020). Endemicity and land-use type influence the abundance-range-size relationship of birds on a tropical island. Journal of Animal Ecology, 90 (2), 460-470. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.13379
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Koh, Lian Pin, Mammides, Christos, Corlett, Richard T., Dayananda, Salindra, Goodale, Uromi M., Kotagama, Sarath W. and Goodale, Eben (2020). Drivers of bird beta diversity in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot are scale dependent: roles of land use, climate, and distance. Oecologia, 193 (4), 801-809. doi: 10.1007/s00442-020-04671-3
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Katabuchi, Masatoshi, Nakamura, Akihiro, Corlett, Richard T., Slik, J. W. Ferry, Fletcher, Christine, He, Fangliang, Weiblen, George D., Shen, Guochun, Xu, Han, Sun, I-Fang, Cao, Ke, Ma, Keping, Chang, Li-Wan, Cao, Min, Jiang, Mingxi, Gunatilleke, I. A. U. Nimal, Ong, Perry, Yap, Sandra, Gunatilleke, C. V. Savitri, Novotny, Vojtech, Brockelman, Warren Y., Xiang, Wusheng, Mi, Xiangcheng, Li, Xiankun, Wang, Xihua, Qiao, Xiujuan, Li, Yide, Tan, Sylvester ... Koh, Lian Pin (2018). Spatial scale changes the relationship between beta diversity, species richness and latitude. Royal Society Open Science, 5 (9) 181168, 181168. doi: 10.1098/rsos.181168
Li, Huili, Guo, Jiayu, Goldberg, Stefanie D., Sreekar, Rachakonda, Ye, Lei, Luo, Xia, Sysouphanthong, Phongeun, Xu, Jianchu, Hyde, Kevin D. and Mortimer, Peter E. (2018). Fruiting patterns of macrofungi in tropical and temperate land use types in Yunnan Province, China. Acta Oecologica, 91, 7-15. doi: 10.1016/j.actao.2018.05.008
Dayananda, Salindra K., Mammides, Christos, Lee, Myung-Bok, Liu, Jia-Jia, Pasion, Bonifacio O., Sreekar, Rachakonda, Yasuda, Mika, Quan, Rui-Chang, Slik, J. W. Ferry, Tomlinson, Kyle W. and Goodale, Eben (2017). Topography and soil type are critical to understanding how bird and herpetofaunal communities persist in forest fragments of tropical China. Biological Conservation, 215, 107-115. doi: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.08.034
Caleb Daniel, G., Sreekar, Rachakonda and Deepak, V. (2017). An ontogenetically stable sexual character in a montane agamid, Salea horsfieldii Gray, 1845 (Reptilia: Agamidae) from Nilgiris, India. Journal of Natural History, 51 (39-40), 2373-2383. doi: 10.1080/00222933.2017.1369188
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Corlett, Richard T., Dayananda, Salindra, Goodale, Uromi Manage, Kilpatrick, Adam, Kotagama, Sarath W., Koh, Lian Pin and Goodale, Eben (2017). Horizontal and vertical species turnover in tropical birds in habitats with differing land use. Biology Letters, 13 (5) 20170186, 20170186. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0186
Velho, Nandini, Sreekar, Rachakonda and Laurance, William F. (2016). Terrestrial species in protected areas and community-managed lands in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast India. Land, 5 (4) 35, 35. doi: 10.3390/land5040035
Harrison, Rhett D., Sreekar, Rachakonda, Brodie, Jedediah F., Brook, Sarah, Luskin, Matthew, O'Kelly, Hannah, Rao, Madhu, Scheffers, Brett and Velho, Nandini (2016). Impacts of hunting on tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Conservation Biology, 30 (5), 972-981. doi: 10.1111/cobi.12785
Dayananda, Salindra K., Goodale, Eben, Lee, Myung-bok, Liu, Jia-Jia, Mammides, Christos, Pasion, Bonifacio O., Quan, Rui-Chang, Slik, J. W. Ferry, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Tomlinson, Kyle W. and Yasuda, Mika (2016). Effects of forest fragmentation on nocturnal Asian birds: a case study from Xishuangbanna, China. Zoological Research, 37 (3), 151-158. doi: 10.13918/j.issn.2095-8137.2016.3.151
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Huang, Guohualing, Yasuda, Mika, Quan, Rui-Chang, Goodale, Eben, Corlett, Richard T. and Tomlinson, Kyle W. (2016). Effects of forests, roads and mistletoe on bird diversity in monoculture rubber plantations. Scientific Reports, 6 21822. doi: 10.1038/srep21822
Kamath, Ambika and Sreekar, Rachakonda (2016). Morphology, ecology, and behaviour of Hylarana intermedia, a Western Ghats frog. Acta Herpetologica, 11 (1), 15-20. doi: 10.13128/Acta_Herpetol-15172
Kong, Yue, Wang, Rong, Yang, Da-Rong, Sreekar, Rachakonda, Peng, Yan-Qiong and Compton, Stephen G. (2016). Non-pollinator fig wasp impact on the reproductive success of an invasive fig tree: why so little?. Biocontrol Science and Technology, 26 (10), 1432-1443. doi: 10.1080/09583157.2016.1214862
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Srinivasan, Umesh, Mammides, Christos, Chen, Jin, Goodale, Uromi Manage, Kotagama, Sarath Wimalabandara, Sidhu, Swati and Goodale, Eben (2015). The effect of land-use on the diversity and mass-abundance relationships of understory avian insectivores in Sri Lanka and southern India. Scientific Reports, 5 11569. doi: 10.1038/srep11569
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Goodale, Eben and Harrison, Rhett D. (2015). Flight initiation distance as behavioral indicator of hunting pressure: a case study of the Sooty-headed Bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster) in Xishuangbanna, SW China. Tropical Conservation Science, 8 (2), 505-512. doi: 10.1177/194008291500800214
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Huang, Guohualing, Zhao, Jiang-Bo, Pasion, Bonifacio O., Yasuda, Mika, Zhang, Kai, Peabotuwage, Indika, Wang, Ximin, Quan, Rui-Chang, Slik, J. W. Ferry, Corlett, Richard T., Goodale, Eben and Harrison, Rhett D. (2015). The use of species-area relationships to partition the effects of hunting and deforestation on bird extirpations in a fragmented landscape. Diversity and Distributions, 21 (4), 441-450. doi: 10.1111/ddi.12292
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Zhang, Kai, Xu, Jianchu and Harrison, Rhett D. (2015). Yet another empty forest: considering the conservation value of a recently established tropical nature reserve. PLoS One, 10 (2) e0117920. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117920
Balaji, Divya, Sreekar, Rachakonda and Rao, Siddharth (2014). Drivers of reptile and amphibian assemblages outside the protected areas of Western Ghats, India. Journal for Nature Conservation, 22 (4), 337-341. doi: 10.1016/j.jnc.2014.03.004
Sreekar, Rachakonda and Quader, Suhel (2013). Influence of gaze and directness of approach on the escape responses of the Indian rock lizard, Psammophilus dorsalis (Gray, 1831). Journal of Biosciences, 38 (5), 829-833. doi: 10.1007/s12038-013-9378-8
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Mohan, Anand, Das, Sandeep, Agarwal, Prerna and Vivek, Ramachandran (2013). Natural windbreaks sustain bird diversity in a tea-dominated landscape. PLoS One, 8 (7) e70379. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070379
Ganesh, S. R., Chadramouli, S. R., Sreekar, R. and Shankar, P. Gowri (2013). Reptiles of the central Western Ghats, India - a reappraisal and revised checklist, with emphasis on the Agumbe Plateau. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 20 (3), 181-189.
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Purushotham, Chetana B., Saini, Katya, Rao, Shyam N., Pelletier, Simon and Chaplod, Saniya (2013). Photographic capture-recapture sampling for assessing populations of the Indian gliding lizard Draco dussumieri. PLoS One, 8 (2) e55935. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055935
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Saini, Katya, Rao, Shyam N. and Purushotham, Chetana B. (2011). Predicting lizard gender: sexual dimorphism in Calotes rouxii (reptilia: agamidae) from Agumbe, Karnataka, India. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 6 (1), 75-80.
Sreekar, Rachakonda, Nghiem Thi Phuong Le, and Harrison, Rhett D. (2010). Vertebrate assemblage at a fruiting fig (Ficus caulocarpa) in Maliau basin, Malaysia. Tropical Conservation Science, 3 (2), 218-227. doi: 10.1177/194008291000300208
Seetharamaraju, M., Sreekar, R., Srinivasulu, C., Srinivasulu, Bhargavi, Kaur, Harpreet and Venkateshwarlu, P. (2009). Rediscovery of Vosmer’s Writhing Skink Lygosoma vosmaerii (Gray, 1839) (Reptilia: Scincidae) with a note on its taxonomy. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 1 (12), 624-626. doi: 10.11609/jott.o2160.624-6