Research Projects

The Indian monsoon system is a crucial system that transports and redistributes heat and moisture over the Indian Ocean and adjacent Asian region, affecting various societal and economic activities, including agriculture. Changes in monsoon intensity can lead to severe droughts, floods, and food production fluctuations, impacting the region's gross domestic product. Reconstructing past monsoon records using proxies is essential for understanding past, present, and future monsoon variability. Previously published high-resolution records from the northern Indian Ocean are limited, and studies show that the monsoon was influenced by millennial-scale changes during the last deglaciation period. Recent studies suggest that millennial-scale variations of the Indian monsoon are correlated with climate variations in Greenland through Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The shift of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) could explain the connection between the North Atlantic and tropical Indian Ocean hydroclimate. The teleconnections between regional monsoon and global climate changes are complex, and associated mechanisms need further exploration, especially in finer timescales. This project will use BoB sediment core MD 161/17 for reconstructing continuous high-resolution Indian monsoon records, and compare them with previously published records to investigate possible regional mechanisms and teleconnections with high-latitude climate and tropical Pacific forcing. Comparative studies will be conducted with previously published records to investigate regional mechanisms and teleconnections with high-latitude climate and tropical Pacific forcing.