Tracing vegetation patterns in the Ganga plain from palaeoclimate records with the help of pollen and multiproxy studies, a team of Indian scientists have shown how climate-driven vegetation changes played a crucial role in shaping human history in the Indian subcontinent over the last 2000 years.

Besides using pollen extracted from sediment cores taken from Sarsapukhra Lake in Varanasi district, Uttar Pradesh, as well as other multiproxy analyses, the scientists from Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), also employed the Earth System Paleoclimate Simulation (ESPS) model to reconstruct monsoon patterns over the past two millennia.

The study's findings show that alternating periods of warm and cold temperatures, such as the Roman Warm Period, Dark Ages Cold Period, Medieval Warm Period, and Little Ice Age, significantly influenced vegetation and climate. These shifts in climate likely played a role in shaping human migrations, as well as the rise and fall of major Indian dynasties like the Guptas, Gurjar Pratiharas, and Cholas.

The study holds importance given that there is a notable scarcity of paleoclimate records for the late Holocene (approximately 2,500 years) in the Central Ganga Plain (CGP), highlighting a significant research gap in understanding past climate patterns in this region.

In particular, the researchers explored paleoclimatic clues to better understand historical climate dynamics, particularly in relation to the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM).

The study has been published in the journal Catena.

By identifying crops more suited to the changing climate, agricultural practices can be adapted to maintain productivity and ensure the stability of the GDP.

This proactive approach could help mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on agriculture, ensuring food security and economic resilience in the future, said the researchers.