Antarctic palaeoclimate variability on millennial, centennial and decadal time scales: Indian initiatives during 2010-2015

Abstract

Palaeoclimatic reconstructions using diverse types of climatic archives and proxies help us in understanding the long term climatic variability and improve our knowledge for climate change perspectives. Globally, the Cenozoic was characterized by the cyclicity of glacial and interglacial fluctuations at regular intervals. Understanding the Antarctic climate variability on millennial, centennial to decadal level is crucial to our knowledge on the role and response of Antarctic ice sheets to the global climate variability. During the period 2010-15, the Indian scientists have used a variety of palaeoclimate records like marine/lake sediment cores and ice cores, mainly from the East Antarctica and its margins. The Indian studies have made significant contributions to the understanding of Antarctic climate variability and the various factors involved. Among the diverse types of studies undertaken, the ice core studies have generated large amount of knowledge basis on the Antarctic climate and its global/ regional linkages. Recent developments in the recovery and study of undisturbed sedimentary records from Antarctic lakes for the first time in the country provide an excellent opportunity to understand the last glacial to Holocene variability with better stratigraphic constraints. Compared to these, deeper sedimentary records from the Antarctic continental margin offer us an important opportunity to study of evolution and dynamics of the Antarctic cryosphere from its inception.