Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences
Title : | Reconstruction of Paleoceanographic and Paleo Climatic Changes Around Lakshadweep Islands Using Stable Isotopes and Chemical Tracers from Scleractinian Corals |
Area of research : | Earth, Atmosphere & Environment Sciences |
Principal Investigator : | Dr. Soundarrajan Ragavendran, National College, Tamil Nadu |
Timeline Start Year : | 2022 |
Timeline End Year : | 2025 |
Contact info : | sraja.english@gmail.com |
Equipments : | Coral Microsampling Equipment (Manix MM- 180) |
Details
Executive Summary : | Climate change has been occurring for millions of years, with geological records preserved in continental and marine archives. Decoding these records provides valuable information about environmental conditions and a tool to test climate models. However, instrumental records for the past several decades are sparse or nonexistent, such as past sea surface temperature (SST) changes in the Indian Ocean. To better understand natural climate variability, it is necessary to extend climate records in space and time using various natural archives as proxy indicators of climate. Living scleractinian corals, such as Porites spp., are excellent archives of paleoclimatic records covering the past few centuries. These corals provide a high resolution and unaltered record of chemical and physical conditions in the surrounding seawater at the time of their formation. Coral reefs can be used as accurate tools to record local and global events, such as past sea level changes, past climate, and sea surface circulation changes. Earlier studies on corals from the Indian margins were limited and did not elicit wider interest on paleo-monsoon or sea level changes. The role of the Indo-Pacific warm pool on global climate has been attracting attention in recent years, with events of abnormally high SSTs in the equatorial Pacific Oceans often associated with strong El-Nino events. However, long-term records are not available from the Indian Ocean region for investigating the link between El Nino-southern Oscillation (ENSO) and monsoon. Interest in using corals for paleoclimate studies has rapidly increased in the last two decades. |
Total Budget (INR): | 42,43,000 |
Organizations involved