A new multiproxy study of pollen data from Darjeeling, India offers insight into the region’s climate history. Climate during the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age was wet in the eastern Himalayas, and the Indian Summer monsoon during the Little Ice Age and post-Little Ice Age stand in marked contrast with peninsular India. The monsoon also increased in strength between 1367 and 1802 CE. Although gaps in the data prevent a finer-grained analysis, this study suggests centennial-scale variations in the monsoon that could shed important light on both the forcing mechanisms governing the Indian Summer Monsoon and the lives of those who have historically depended on it.
Read the full article here.