Research Projects

Changing biogeochemistry as observed in the sediments during late Quaternary (Reichart et al., 1998; Suthhof et al., 2001) and sediment traps (Rixen et al., 1996) of the Arabian Sea is linked to changing water masses. It is hard to know if changes in the formation and circulation of these water masses are influencing the climate change or vice versa. In the Indian Ocean, isotopic signatures of the water masses are limited (Singh et al., 2012; Goswami et al., 2014) and lacking in some cases. There are reports of formation of local water masses in the northeastern Arabian Sea (Prasanna Kumar and Prasad, 1999). There is contribution of water by Indian Rivers that flow during the monsoon but their contribution is not known. There have been changes in the past intermediate waters in the northern Indian Ocean related to climate change affecting the water masses, OMZ etc. The changes in the water masses and the OMZ are slow processes that can be tracked from sediment cores (that can give paleo changes). Therefore, we plan to carry out the study with the proposed objectives