Reconstruction of mid to late holocene paleoenvironmental shifts a multiproxy record from nw himalaya

Abstract

newlineThe NW Himalaya represents a key region for understanding Holocene paleoclimate changes in the Indian subcontinent as it is located at the intercept between the influences of the mid latitude westerlys and the Southwest Monsoon SWM system The region comprises lake loess fluvial cave deposits and distinct tree species that hold the signatures of past climate variations Small changes in climate including shifts in the regional precipitation and temperature patterns have relatively large consequences on these landscapes. In addition the high altitude lakes of the Kashmir Himalayan region are particularly sensitive to slight changes in climate together with the current warming trend which potentially has had severe impact on the lake ecosystem and has most probably resulted in shifts of the hydrological regime The present research work was carried out to reconstruct the mid to late Holocene pale environmental shifts from the Kashmir Valley and Zanskar Valley located in the NW Himalayan region For this purpose a lake sediment core retrieved from Anchar Lake 34 083758 N and 74 471089 E Srinagar Kashmir Valley and loesspaleosol sediments collected from Pensila Pass 33 51285 N and 76 21330 E Zanskar Valley analyzed to record high resolution past environmental changes The Anchar Lake is an open drainage type water body located at an elevation of 1583m a s l with a mean depth of 4m Further lake surface sediments from Anchar Lake and tree ring cores Bandipora and Gander bal areas of Kashmir Valley were also collected to understand the recent human impact provenance and to investigate the effect of regional precipitation and temperature on tree ring growth respectively.