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Asian monsoon and vegetation shift: evidence from the Siwalik succession of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2022

Harshita Bhatia ,
Gaurav Srivastava Open the ORCID record for Gaurav Srivastava [Opens in a new window] ,
Purushottam Adhikari Open the ORCID record for Purushottam Adhikari [Opens in a new window] ,
Su Tao ,
Torsten Utescher ,
Khum N. Paudayal Open the ORCID record for Khum N. Paudayal [Opens in a new window]  and
Rakesh C. Mehrotra
Harshita Bhatia
Affiliation:
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow, 226 007, India Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India
Gaurav Srivastava*
Affiliation:
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow, 226 007, India Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India
Purushottam Adhikari
Affiliation:
Central Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal Department of Geology, Birendra Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal
Su Tao
Affiliation:
CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
Torsten Utescher
Affiliation:
Institute for Geosciences, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Khum N. Paudayal
Affiliation:
Central Department of Geology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal
Rakesh C. Mehrotra
Affiliation:
Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow, 226 007, India
*
Author for correspondence: Gaurav Srivastava, Email: gaurav_jan10@yahoo.co.in
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Abstract

Quantitative Miocene climate and vegetation data from the Siwalik succession of western Nepal indicate that the development of the Indian summer monsoon has had an impact, though in part, on vegetation changes. The climate and vegetation of the Lower (middle Miocene) and Middle (late Miocene–Pliocene) Siwalik successions of Darjeeling, eastern Himalaya, have been quantified. Reconstructed climate data, using the Coexistence Approach, suggest a decrease in winter temperatures and precipitation during the wettest months (MPwet) from the Lower to Middle Siwalik. The floristic assemblage suggests that Lower Siwalik forests were dominated by wet evergreen taxa, whereas deciduous ones became more dominant during the Middle Siwalik. The vegetation shift in the eastern Himalayan Siwalik was most likely due to a decrease in MPwet. The quantified climate–vegetation data from the eastern and western Himalayan Siwalik indicate that changes in the Indian summer monsoon had a profound impact on vegetation development during the period of deposition. We suggest that the decrease in winter temperature and summer monsoon rainfall during the Middle Siwalik might be linked with the Northern Hemisphere glaciation/cooling or a number of other things that were also going on at the time, including the continued rise of the Himalaya, and drying across the Tibetan region, which may have affected atmospheric circulation regionally.

Keywords

climate changeC4 plantsCoexistence ApproachDarjeelingmegafossils
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 159 , Issue 8 , August 2022 , pp. 1397 - 1414
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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