Experts discuss future direction of Paleoclimatic research at KU
Srinagar: To deliberate on the future direction of Paleoclimatic reconstructions in the country using various approaches, data and proxies a meeting of the Steering Committee (SC) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Govt. of India on Paleoclimate studies was held at University of Kashmir (KU) on Tuesday.
The two-day Steering Committee meeting, hosted by the Department of Earth Sciences, KU is being attended by about 25 eminent experts from various national institutes and universities across the country.
The Committee considered and approved several cutting-edge research projects on paleoclimatic reconstruction in different parts of the country.
Vice-Chancellor, KU Prof Talat Ahmad who is also the chairman of the Steering Committee in his opening remarks at the meeting said that the instrumental records of climate span only a tiny fraction of the Earth’s climatic history and so provide a totally inadequate perspective on climatic variation and the evolution of climate today.
He said that a longer perspective on climatic variability can be obtained by the study of natural phenomena that provide a proxy record for reconstructing the past climate.
“When the causes of past climatic fluctuations are understood, forecasts of climatic variations in the future will be on firmer ground,” said Prof. Talat.
Advisor, MoES and Member Secretary of the SCM, Dr. Neloy Khare said that in the present context of global warming, a firm understanding of paleoclimate is of paramount importance to assess future trends of climate in a better way helping modelers, policy planners and economists for advance preparedness for any climate linked calamity ahead.
Prof. Shakil Romshoo, Head, Department of Earth Sciences, KU which is hosting the SC meeting said that there is a need for building a reliable and longer record of paleoclimate in order to better identify the causes and mechanisms of the observed climatic variations in the country. He said that the ice-cores, lake sediments and Karewa deposits offer the ideal proxies for reconstructing paleoclimatic setting of the region.
The eminent experts are scheduled to deliver a series of keynote talks on various aspects of the Paleoclimate research in the University in order to build the technical ingenuity of the faculty and research scholars in the field of paleoclimatic reconstruction.
Prof. Avinash Pandey, Director, Inter-University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi, delivered a talk on the “Accelerator based Mass Spectroscopy and dating facilities at IUAC” on 30 October, 2018 which was attended by a large number of teachers and research scholars from different faculties of the University. He discussed the use of sophisticated accelerator systems in the areas of nuclear physics, radiation biology etc. and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry for paleoclimate studies. On 29 October, Prof. Hema Achyuthan of the Anna University, Chennai delivered a talk on the topic titled “Reconstruction of Holocene climate variability using lake sediments” giving examples of her research on Kashmir and Ladakh lake sediments. The series of talks by the experts in the University shall continue till 1 November, 2018.
KV Online
