BIO 105 Environmental Science
BIO 338 Environmental Ethics
BIO 408 Wildlife Management
BIO 470 Conservation Biology
BIO 570 Landscape Ecology

Research Interests

My research interests are broadly in the areas of conservation biology and biodiversity informatics and include the following lines of inquiry:

• the study of deforestation, forest fragmentation, and land-use change for biodiversity conservation and conservation priority-setting,
  
• applications Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and remotely-sensed imagery in land-use change, climate change, landscape ecology, and conservation biology,
• applications of ecological niche modeling to understand species distributions and the effects of climate change on biodiversity.

I have conducted collaborative research projects in India, Brazil, and south-west Michigan. My collaborators include faculty and students at University of Kansas, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Clark University, various institutions in India and Brazil, the Annis Water Resources Institute, and the Biology and NRM program at GVSU.

Ongoing research projects

Conservation and reintroduction of rare, endemic, and endangered rhododendron species in the Indian Eastern Himalayas (With M. L. Khan and Town Peterson)

Assessment of biodiversity consequences of sea level rise mediated by climate change (With Town Peterson, Xiagong Li, and Jorge Soberon).

Integrating neutral biodiversity theory with niche theory: The key role of spatial scale (With Jorge Soberon and Town Peterson).

Selected Publications

Menon, S., B. I. Choudhury^†, M. L. Khan, and A. T. Peterson. 2010. Ecological niche modeling predicts new populations of Gymnocladus assamicus, a critically endangered tree species. Endangered Species Research. In Press.

Peterson, A. T., S. Menon, and X. Li. 2010. Recent advances in the climate change biology literature: Learning from Rip Van Winkle. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. In Press.

Menon, S., J. Soberón, X. Li, and A. T. Peterson. 2010. First-pass global assessment of biodiversity consequences of sea level rise mediated by climate change. Biodiversity and Conservation. In Press.

Menon, S., Z. Islam, and A. T. Peterson. 2009. Projected climate change effects on nuthatch distribution and diversity across Asia. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 57(2):569-575. Download pdf.

Pontius, R. G., S. Menon, J. Duncan^†, and S. Gupta^†. 2009. Fundamentals for using geographic information science to measure the effectiveness of land conservation projects. In: P. K. Joshi et al. eds. Geoinformatics for Natural Resource Management. Nova Science Publishers, New York. Pp. 539-557. Download pdf.

Menon, S., Z. Islam, J. Soberón, and A. T. Peterson. 2008. A preliminary analysis of the ecology and geography of the Asian nuthatches (Aves: Sittidae). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 120(4):692-699. Download pdf.

Menon, S., R. G. Pontius, J. Rose*, M. L. Khan, and K. S. Bawa. 2001. Identifying conservation priority areas in the tropics: A land-use change modeling approach. Conservation Biology 15(2): 501-512. Link to full text.

Menon, S. and K. S. Bawa. 1998. Tropical deforestation: Reconciling disparities in estimates for India. Ambio 27 (7): 576-577. Download pdf.

Menon, S. and K. S. Bawa. 1997. Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote-sensing, and a landscape ecology approach to biodiversity conservation in the Western Ghats. Current Science 73(2): 134-145. Download pdf.

Ramesh, B. R., S. Menon, and K. S. Bawa. 1997. A vegetation based approach to biodiversity gap analysis in the Agastyamalai region, Western Ghats, India. Ambio XXVI (8): 529-536. Download pdf.

Bawa, K. S., S. Menon, and L. R. Gorman*. 1997. Cloning and Conservation Biology: Paradox, Panacea, or Pandora’s Box? Conservation Biology 11(4):1-2. Link to full text.

Khan, M. L., S. Menon,  and K. S. Bawa. 1997. Effectiveness of the protected area network in biodiversity conservation: A case-study of Meghalaya state, North-east India. Biodiversity and Conservation 6: 853-868. Link to full text.

Bawa, K. S. and S. Menon. 1997. Biodiversity monitoring: The missing ingredients. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12(1): 42. Link to full text.

Menon, S. and F. E. Poirier. 1996. Lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) in a disturbed forest fragment: Activity patterns and time budget. Int. Journal of Primatology 17(6): 969-985. Link to full text.

DeCoursey, P. and S. Menon. 1991. Circadian photo-entrainment in a nocturnal rodent: quantitative measurement of light-sampling activity. Animal Behavior 41:781-785.

Menon, S., P. DeCoursey, and D. Bruce. 1988. Frequency modulation of a circadian pacemaker during photoentrainment.  Physiological Zoology 61(2): 186-196.

^{†Graduate student, *Undergraduate student}