A Multi-Archive Reconstruction of Holocene Summer and Winter Monsoon Variability in NW South Asia

This thesis investigates the paleoclimate of the Indus River Basin and surrounding areas of northwest (NW) South Asia over the last 12,000 years, covering a critical period of human history. The region’s climate is characterized by two overlapping rainfall systems: the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and the Indian Winter Monsoon (IWM). A shift in these monsoon systems has been documented throughout South Asia at 4.2 ka BP, with potential effects on the development and decline of the Indus Civilization (c. 5- 3.6 ka BP). This thesis examines the connection between climate and cultural shifts by providing new records from three climate archives spanning 1500 km from the Arabian Sea to the Thar Desert and Himalayan Mountains. The chapters feature δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C of three foraminifer species in marine core 63KA over 8.8-7.6 ka BP and 5.4-3.0 ka BP, gypsum from three Holocene Thar Desert playa lakes, and sub-annually resolved trace element and stable isotope data from DHAR-1 speleothem covering 4.2-2.5 ka BP. The major findings from this thesis contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of climate change in NW South Asia throughout the Holocene. The three Thar Desert playa lakes began accumulating gypsum c. 11 ka BP, aligning with a post- glacial strengthening ISM. Prismatic gypsum crystals and uniformly high δ¹⁸O of gypsum hydration water from early-mid Holocene deposits suggest relatively deep lake levels during this phase. Similarly, the δ¹⁸O of marine core 63KA foraminifer species dwelling in surface and thermocline layers demonstrate a stronger ISM over 8.8-7.6 ka BP and a strengthening IWM from 8.8-8.6 ka BP. By 4.8 ka BP, the ISM started weakening, but IWM strength peaks from 4.5-4.3 ka BP. A wet period c. 5-4.4 ka BP is also apparent from high δ¹⁸O of gypsum hydration water at Karsandi playa. The late Holocene droughts after 4.2 ka BP are well-documented by the precise (age error ± 18 years) DHAR-1 reconstruction, which tracks ISM strength via δ¹⁸O and winter aridity using δ¹³C, Sr²⁺ U²⁺, and Ba²⁺. Weakened ISM and IWM both contributed to the 230-year drought period with three distinct arid phases (4.2-4.17 ka BP, 4.14-4.08 ka BP, and 4.06-3.97 ka BP). Core 63KA shows minimum Indus River discharge and weakened IWM over the same interval, whereas Lunkaransar playa shows a protracted lake level decline, and aeolian sand replaces gypsum deposition at Karsandi by 3.2 ka BP. Shallow playa systems briefly recover at Lunkaransar and Khajuwala during the late Holocene, but Khajuwala eventually desiccates permanently.Tworains ERC grant 648609 WIHM ERC grant 339694 QUEST H2020 Marie Skodowska-Curie actions 69103

Reconstructing Holocene landscape and environmental changes at Lago Rogaguado, Bolivian Amazon

Funder: University of CambridgeAbstractWe performed geochemical analyses of two lake sediment cores (1.25 and 1.5 m long) from Lago Rogaguado, which is a large (315 km2) and shallow lake in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon, to investigate Holocene environmental changes based on a multi-proxy dataset (XRF, density, grain size, C:N, and macrocharcoal). One of the two cores provides a history of environmental changes in the Llanos de Moxos from 8100 cal BP until present, which supplements previously published pollen and microscopic charcoal records. Our analyses indicate lake expansion at 5800 cal BP, which may relate to tectonic activity. This was followed by further increasing lake levels, peaking at approximately 1050–400 cal BP, which supports increasingly wetter conditions in the Llanos de Moxos after the mid-Holocene. A fourfold increase in macroscopic charcoal accumulation rate and a more than fivefold increase in sedimentation rates supports anthropogenic fire activity at around 1450 cal BP (500 CE), suggesting that pre-Columbian populations used fire to actively manage the landscape during a period of maximum lake levels around Lago Rogaguado. From 400–100 cal BP, higher C:N, larger grain sizes and peaks in macroscopic charcoal accumulation rates suggest increased watershed erosion associated with increased biomass burning, possibly related to intensified land use.</jats:p

Indian winter and summer monsoon strength over the 4.2 ka BP event in foraminifer isotope records from the Indus River delta in the Arabian Sea

The plains of northwest South Asia receive rainfall during both the Indian summer (June–September) and winter (December–March) monsoon. Researchers have long attempted to deconstruct the influence of these precipitation regimes in paleoclimate records, in order to better understand regional climatic drivers and their potential impact on human populations. The mid–late Holocene transition between 5.3 and 3.3 ka is of particular interest in this region because it spans the period of the Indus Civilization from its early development, through its urbanization, and onto eventual transformation into a rural society. An oxygen isotope record of the surface-dwelling planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber from the northeast Arabian Sea provided evidence for an abrupt decrease in rainfall and reduction in Indus River discharge at 4.2 ka, which the authors linked to the decline in the urban phase of the Indus Civilization (Staubwasser et al., 2003). Given the importance of this study, we used the same core (63KA) to measure the oxygen isotope profiles of two other foraminifer species at decadal resolution over the interval from 5.4 to 3.0 ka and to replicate a larger size fraction of G. ruber than measured previously. By selecting both thermocline-dwelling (Neogloboquadrina dutertrei) and shallow-dwelling (Globigerinoides sacculifer) species, we provide enhanced detail of the climatic changes that occurred over this crucial time interval. We found evidence for a period of increased surface water mixing, which we suggest was related to a strengthened winter monsoon with a peak intensity over 200 years from 4.5 to 4.3 ka. The time of greatest change occurred at 4.1 ka when both the summer and winter monsoon weakened, resulting in a reduction in rainfall in the Indus region. The earliest phase of the urban Mature Harappan period coincided with the period of inferred stronger winter monsoon between 4.5 and 4.3 ka, whereas the end of the urbanized phase occurred some time after the decrease in both the summer and winter monsoon strength by 4.1 ka. Our findings provide evidence that the initial growth of large Indus urban centers coincided with increased winter rainfall, whereas the contraction of urbanism and change in subsistence strategies followed a reduction in rainfall of both seasons

Author Correction: Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.NERC (NE/H011463/1

Intensified summer monsoon and the urbanization of Indus Civilization in northwest India

Today the desert margins of northwest India are dry and unable to support large populations, but were densely occupied by the populations of the Indus Civilization during the middle to late Holocene. The hydroclimatic conditions under which Indus urbanization took place, which was marked by a period of expanded settlement into the Thar Desert margins, remains poorly understood. We measured the isotopic values (δ18O and δD) of gypsum hydration water in paleolake Karsandi sediments in northern Rajasthan to infer past changes in lake hydrology, which is sensitive to changing amounts of precipitation and evaporation. Our record reveals that relatively wet conditions prevailed at the northern edge of Rajasthan from ~5.1 ± 0.2 ka BP, during the beginning of the agricultural-based Early Harappan phase of the Indus Civilization. Monsoon rainfall intensified further between 5.0 and 4.4 ka BP, during the period when Indus urban centres developed in the western Thar Desert margin and on the plains of Haryana to its north. Drier conditions set in sometime after 4.4 ka BP, and by ~3.9 ka BP an eastward shift of populations had occurred. Our findings provide evidence that climate change was associated with both the expansion and contraction of Indus urbanism along the desert margin in northwest India

Living in the hinterland: Survey and excavations at Lohari Ragho 2015–2017

Living in the hinterland: Survey and excavations at Lohari Ragho 2015–201

Reconstructing Holocene landscape and environmental changes at Lago Rogaguado, Bolivian Amazon

We performed geochemical analyses of two lake sediment cores (1.25 and 1.5 m long) from Lago Rogaguado, which is a large (315 km2) and shallow lake in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon, to investigate Holocene environmental changes based on a multi-proxy dataset (XRF, density, grain size, C:N, and macrocharcoal). One of the two cores provides a history of environmental changes in the Llanos de Moxos from 8100 cal BP until present, which supplements previously published pollen and microscopic charcoal records. Our analyses indicate lake expansion at 5800 cal BP, which may relate to tectonic activity. This was followed by further increasing lake levels, peaking at approximately 1050-400 cal BP, which supports increasingly wetter conditions in the Llanos de Moxos after the mid-Holocene. A fourfold increase in macroscopic charcoal accumulation rate and a more than fivefold increase in sedimentation rates supports anthropogenic fire activity at around 1450 cal BP (500 CE), suggesting that pre-Columbian populations used fire to actively manage the landscape during a period of maximum lake levels around Lago Rogaguado. From 400-100 cal BP, higher C:N, larger grain sizes and peaks in macroscopic charcoal accumulation rates suggest increased watershed erosion associated with increased biomass burning, possibly related to intensified land use

Multi-proxy analysis of sediment cores from Lago Rogaguado and Llanos de Moxos

Lago Rogaguado is a large (315 km²) shallow lake in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon. Two Holocene-age lake sediment cores (1.25 and 1.5 m long) were collected using a UWITEC gravity surface corer and Livingstone piston corer in 2012 and 2013. The location of core LR-400 is 2 km from the western shoreline at 2.5 m water depth, whereas core LR-398 is in the center of the lake approximately 4 km from the nearest shoreline at 2.9 m water depth. Both cores were dated using ¹⁴C, and produced a multi-proxy dataset (XRF, bulk density, grain size, C:N, biogenic silica, water content, and macroscopic charcoal) that we used to uncover palaeoenvironmental changes in the context of vegetation changes (deduced from pollen analyses of core LR-400; Brügger et al., 2016). The objective of the dataset was to reconstruct long-term paleoenvironmental conditions around the lake, including lake levels, erosion and sedimentation rates, and local biomass burning for the Holocene