Reconstruction of Indian monsoon dynamics in response to Pliocene climate

The Indian Monsoon (IM) precipitation is the main seasonal driver of water availability, supporting billions of people. The future projection of mean annual ISM rainfall is highly variable under different warming scenarios and an increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation has been suggested if global mean temperature increases 3 to C1.

Our ongoing proxy and modelling work suggest multiple competing controls on IM dynamics (precipitation and wind) during the Plio-Pleistocene linked to atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) global cooling, orbital forcing factors and gateway close2.

Nethertheless, the past evolution of IM remains elusive since it is grossly under-represented in Asia monsoon palaeoclimate proxy records. The project aims to produce new proxy records to both fill gaps in our knowledge and test competing forcing factors affecting IM dynamics during the early to mid-Pliocene ( 3 to 5 Ma0 capturing the prevailing warm, high atmospheric CO2 conditions and gateway closure 3

This project provides flexible opportunity to be trained and employ data/model approached to understanding past IM variability in response to Pliocene climate. Examples include application of a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct IM rainfall/runoff, seasonality of monsoon rainfall/runoff and marine productivity in response to IM wind variability on orbital timescales from the core IM region to the Bay of Bengal (BoB) or work on integrating existing data and numerical model.