CV

Academic Records

Post doctoral Deep-Sea Taxonomy fellowship - Ifremer, France
Ph.D. Marine Biology - Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala, India
M.Sc. Aquatic biology and Fisheries - University of Kerala, Kariavattom campus, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
B.Sc. Zoology - Maharajas college, Ernakulam, Kerala, India

Work Experience

Awards

ISA-IFREMER fellowship for deep sea taxonomy for 2022-2024 and worked on the Taxonomic identification and ecology of benthic foraminifera from French AIFM mineral resource permit Zones
DST-INSPIRE Research fellowship in 2013 for a period of 5 years (2013- 2018)
KSCSTE fellowship for Zoology Taxonomy in 2013 (but fellowship was not availed)
Received the best poster award in February 2016 at an International Conference- Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy: Production, Strategies & Policies for the poster presentation entitled “Reports of some recent benthic foraminifera from the inner shelf of Kerala coast”
Had served as a resource person on Scientific writing at St. Xaviers College under the DBT Star Program

Research Interests

Taxonomy of invertebrates especially Protozoans including Rhizopods and Benthic Foraminiferans
Biodiversity studies of benthic foraminifera in deep sea ecosystems and coastal ecosystems
Global warming and influence of Climate change on Marine life
Studies on indigenous fauna and flora and in their conservation strategies.
Studies on anthropogenic influences in the Aquatic Ecosystems

Research Experience

Presented a paper entitled ‘Biodiversity of the Deep Sea benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the abyssal plains of Clarion-Clipperton Zone, North East Pacific’ in the 56th European Marine Biological symposium held at Reykjavik, Iceland held between 4th and 8th September,2023
Participated in the International Seabed Authority’s 28th session conducted in July, 2023 at Kingston, Jamaica and presented a talk on the topic “How to advance deep sea taxonomy: from International collaborations to deep sea conservation” at the side event. Had also presented a poster on the Diversity of the foraminiferal assemblages in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, Abyssal North East Pacific at the event.
Had served as Mentor in the Meioscool workshop, June 2023 held at Palma du Mallorca, Spain conducted jointly by Ifremer and University of Madrid in which I tutored the Foraminiferal taxonomy to PhD scholars
Doctoral thesis on “Taxonomy and systematics of benthic foraminifera from Indian Seas” in which I had described a total of 212 species from the continental shelf and slope regions of Arabian Sea, deep sea ecosystem of Bay of Bengal and shelf region of Lakshadweep Islands.
Taxonomic studies on the Benthic Foraminiferans from the Indian Seas were being carried out from 2013. As a part of this research program had actively participated in two onboard cruises in 2015 and 2017 for one moth each in Bay of Bengal
Acquired a training in basics of SCUBA diving from Lakshadweep.
Master’s degree - Dissertation entitled ‘Diversity of free-living protozoans in the Vembanad lake and their role as Indicator species ‘was done. Exploring the free living rhizopod and ciliate protozoans was carried out (2012)

Cruise Participation

Publications In Journals

Ranju, R., Joydas, T. V., & Damodaran, R. (2022). Unilocular calcareous benthic foraminifera from the deep-sea sediments of the Bay of Bengal. Regional Studies in Marine Science, 55, 102558.
Ranju, R., R.Damodaran & N.R.Menon.(2021). Reports on some benthic foraminifera from the Agatti Island Lakshadweep, India. Journal of Environment and Sociobiology,18(1):15-24.
Ranju, R., M.Nashad & N.R.Menon.(2019).Occurrence of Uvigerinids and Buliminids benthic foraminifera along the western continental margin, eastern Arabian Sea. Journal on New Biological reports, 8(2):31-36.
Ranju, R., Nandini Menon & N.R.Menon. (2018). Observations on some symbiont bearing foraminifera from the shelf and slope sediments of eastern Arabian Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India, 60(2): 53-58
Ranju, R., N.R.Menon, M.Nashad & N.R.Nisha.(2017). First report of Ovammina opaca, Dahlgren 1962, a saccaminid benthic foraminiferal species from the recent sediments of Arabian sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India, 59(2):119-121.
Ranju, R., N.R.Nisha and N.R.Menon..Diversity of agglutinated foraminifera from Cochin-Alleppey region and their ecological significance." Proceedings of the National Seminar ‘Marine Biodiversity and Bioprospecting for Sustainable Livelihood' (MBBSL) March, 2016.
Ranju R and Jayaprakas V. Free living protozoans as bioindicators in Vembanad lake, Kerala, India, an important Ramsar site. International Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Studies 2(3):197-197(2015)
Ranju R. Bio resource depletion due to Coconut husk retting in and around Vaikom region of Vembanad Lake. Journal of Environment and Sociobiology 11(1):25-30(2014)
V. Jayaprakas and Ranju R. Indian Coral reefs: Diversity, Anthropogenic influences and conservation measures. Journal of Humanities, Arts, Medicines and Sciences (BEST: IJHAMS) 2(4):25-36(2014)
Ranju, R., Bindu, L., Jayaprakas, V. Use of Ciliates in Pollution monitoring and Bioremediation in Vembanad Lake, India. International Journal of Humanities, Arts, Medicine a`nd Sciences (BEST: IJHAMS) 2(1):21-28(2014)
Ranju, R., Bindu, L., Jayaprakas, V. Reports of some free-living protozoans from Vembanad Lake, an important Ramsar site, Kerala, India. Journal of Environment and Sociobiology 10(2):109-112(2013)
Ranju, R., Bindu, L., Jayaprakas, V. Two new reports of testate amoebae (Protozoa: Rhizopoda) of the genera Cryptodifflugia and Difflugia from India. Journal on New Biological reports 2(2): 170-172 (2013)
Daché, E., Dessandier, P. A., Radhakrishnan, R., Foulon, V., Michel, L., de Vargas, C., ... & Zeppilli, D. (2024). Benthic foraminifera as bio-indicators of natural and anthropogenic conditions in Roscoff Aber Bay (Brittany, France). PloS one, 19(10), e0309463.

Works Under Progress From Post Doctoral Studies At Ifremer

Manuscript entitled ‘Variability of benthic foraminifera before and after the experimental operation of PATANIA II model nodule collector vehicle‘ in collaboration with Ghent University, Belgium
Manuscript on the Taxonomic edition of benthic foraminifera from CCZ, North East Pacific Ocean
Manuscripts on the Description of new species in collaboration with Eckerd University, Florida
Manuscript entitled ‘Benthic Foraminifera as bio-indicators of natural and anthropogenic stresses’ (Submitted by Edwin Dache and others in which am a co author)

Paper / Poster Presentations At Conferences

Ranju,R., P.A.Dessandier & D.Zeppilli (2023). Biodiversity of the deep sea benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the abyssal plains of Clarion-Clipperton Zone, North East Pacific
Ranju,R, P.A.Dessandier & D. Zeppilli (2023). Diversity of the foraminiferal assemblages in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, Abyssal North East Pacific in the Contractors Poster Exhibition at ISA’s 28th Session Council meeting.
Ranju,R & R.Damodaran.(2019). Unilocular calcareous benthic foraminifera from the deep-sea sediments of Bay of Bengal, p.141, Book of Abstracts, International Conference on Benthos (ICB 2019), Kochi, 6-8 March 2019.
Ranju, R., Nandini Menon & N.R. Menon. (2018). Observations on some symbiont bearing foraminifera from the shelf and slope sediments of eastern Arabian Sea, p.64, Book of Abstracts, The second International Symposium on Remote Sensing for Ecosystem Analysis & Fisheries, SAFARI 2, 15-17 January 2018.
Ranju R, N. R Nisha and N.R. Menon. Distribution of Buliminids and Uvigerinids along the South-Western Continental shelf of India and their ecological significance,p 67,Book of Abstracts, Fourth Indian Biodiversity Congress (IBC 2017).
Ranju, R., N.R.Nisha & N.R.Menon.(2016). Diversity of the Agglutinated foraminifera from the Cochin region with special reference to their Ecological preferences, p.21, Book of Abstracts, National seminar on Marine Biodiversity and Bioprospecting for sustainable livelihood 2016.
Ranju, R., N. R Nisha, N.R.Menon & Nashad M.(2016). Reports of some recent benthic foraminifera from the inner shelf of Kerala Coast, p108, Book of Abstracts, International conference-Towards a Sustainable blue economy: Production, Strategies and Policies 2016.

Skills Acquired

Collection of free-living protozoans such as Rhizopods and Ciliates
Identification of free- living protozoans mainly rhizopods using standard keys based on their morphological features
Species level identification of Benthic foraminiferans, preparation of microassemblage slides
Had attended special training programme on Science writing and presentation skills for a period of 8 days from 14-17 October and 18-21 November 2013 conducted by BOBLME-MBAI.
A hands-on training was attended on Electron Microscopy: Theory, Application and Sample preparation techniques, at the Sophisticated Test and Instrumentation Centre, CUSAT, Kochi from March 4th to 7th March 2015.
Served as mentor in Meioschool held at Palma du Mallorca, Spain and also learned different meiofaunal extractions including the Bubble and blot technique.