A new study from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences reveals changes in climate and their impact on rainfall, weathering, sediment transport, and lake processes in northern India over 25000 years. The findings could improve climate models for predicting future monsoon behavior and aid water resource management.
A new study by researchers from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences has shed light on past changes in climate and their influence on rainfall, weathering, sediment transport, and lake processes in northern India. The study, published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, focused on magnetic minerals accumulated in sediments below the Bakhira Lake in Sant Kabir Nagar over 25000 years.
The Bakhira Lake, located in the Ghaghara–Rapti alluvial system and designated as a Ramsar Site in 2022, serves as a perennial oxbow/floodplain wetland. Its floodplain–lacustrine setting favors the accumulation and preservation of sediments derived from both the lake and surrounding catchment, making it sensitive to changes in monsoon-driven runoff, sediment transport, and weathering.
By using environmental magnetic properties integrated with grain-size, geochemical, and clay mineralogical records, the researchers reconstructed variations in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present. The record identifies major climatic events, including periods of dry conditions and weakened monsoon strength during the Last Glacial Maximum, Bølling–Allerød, Younger Dryas, Holocene Climatic Optimum, and late Holocene droughts.
The findings provide valuable baseline information for improving climate models, predicting future monsoon behavior, and understanding the response of river and lake systems to changing rainfall patterns. The study also supports better planning for water-resource management, agriculture, flood and drought mitigation, and environmental conservation in the Ganga Plain.
Source:
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