Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T20:09:54.530Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Estimates of Holocene Precipitation for Rajasthan, India, Based on Pollen and Lake-Level Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

A. M. Swain ,
J. E. Kutzbach  and
S. Hastenrath
A. M. Swain
Affiliation:
Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin, 1225 West Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA
J. E. Kutzbach
Affiliation:
Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin, 1225 West Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, 1225 West Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA
S. Hastenrath
Affiliation:
Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, 1225 West Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A pollen profile obtained from lake sediments at Lunkaransar, Rajasthan, in northwest India was used along with a pollen-climate calibration function to estimate past precipitation. Between 10,500 and 3500 yr B.P., the estimated precipitation was about 500 mm/yr, or about 200 mm/yr above the modern value. A model was used for the energy and hydrologic budget of a lake basin and lake at Sambhar (located 240 km SE of Lunkaransar) to calculate that a 200 mm/yr increase in rainfall above the modern amount would have raised the lake level about 20 m above the modern level. Topographic charts and satellite imagery provided some evidence in support of an enlarged paleolake of that elevation, but field exploration would be required to confirm the size and date of a former lake. After about 3500 yr B.P., the Lunkaransar profile indicated a desiccated lake bed; because no pollen was preserved, the pollen-climate calibration function was of no use for estimating the amount of the precipitation decline. A reduction of precipitation of about 200 mm/yr below the modern amount was estimated from the energy and hydrologic budget for paleolake Sambhar by assuming that the lake was one-tenth of its present size during the dry interval.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allchin, B., Goudie, A.. 1971. Dunes, aridity and early man in Gujarat, western India. Man in India, New Series 6. 248–265.Google Scholar
Allen, E.B.. 1982. Water and nutrient competition between Salsola kali and two native grass species (Agropyron smithii and Bouteloua gracilis). Ecology 63. 732–741.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, A., Reichel, E.. 1975. The World Water Balance. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich.Google Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Kutzbach, J.E.. 1974. On the analysis of pollen-climate canonical transfer functions. Quaternary Research 4. 162–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryson, R.A., Swain, A.M.. 1981. Holocene variations of monsoon rainfall in Rajasthan. Quaternary Research 16. 135–145.Google Scholar
Budyko, M.I.. 1974. Climate and Life Vol. 18. Academic Press, New York. International Geophysics Series.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W., Issac, G.L., Richardson, J.A., Washbourn-Kamau, C.. 1972. Radiocarbon dating of East African lake levels. Science 175. 1069.Google Scholar
Ghose, B., Pandey, S., Singh, S., Lal, G.. 1966. Geomorphology of the Central Luni basin, Western Rajasthan. Annals of Arid Zone 5. 10–25.Google Scholar
Hastenrath, S.L., Kutzbach, J.E.. 1983. Paleoclimate and water budget of East African lakes. Quaternary Researchin press.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E.. 1980. Estimates of past climate at Paleolake Chad, North Africa, based on a hydrological and energy-balance model. Quaternary Research 14. 210–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E.. 1981. Monsoon climate of the early Holocene: Climate experiment with the Earth's orbital parameters for 9000 years ago. Science 214. 59–61.Google Scholar
Kutzbach, J.E., Otto-Bliesner, B.. 1982. The sensitivity of the African-Asian monsoonal climate to orbital parameter changes for 9000 yr B.P. in a low resolution general circulation model. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 39. 1177–1188.Google Scholar
Livingstone, D.A.. 1975. Late Quaternary climatic change in Africa. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 6. 249–280.Google Scholar
Misra, V.C.. 1967. Geography of Rajasthan. National Book Trust, New Delhi.Google Scholar
Monthly Climatic Data for the World * NOAA, National Climatic Center, Asheville, N.C.Google Scholar
Sadler, J.C.. 1970. Mean-Cloudiness and Gradient-Level-Wind Charts over the Tropics Vol II. Air Weather ServiceTechnical Report 215, U. S. Air Force.Google Scholar
Schutz, C., Gates, W.L.. 1974. Global Climatic Data for Surface, 800 mb, 400 mb: January, April, July, and October. Rand, Santa Monica, Calif.Google Scholar
Sellers, W.D.. 1965. Physical Climatology. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Singh, G.. 1967. A palynological approach towards the resolution of some important desert problems in Rajasthan. Indian Geohydrology 3. 111–128.Google Scholar
Singh, G.. 1971. The Indus Valley culture seen in the context of postglacial climatic and ecological studies in northwest India. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 6. 177–189.Google Scholar
Singh, G., Chopra, S.K., Singh, A.B.. 1973. Pollen-rain from the vegetation of northwest India. New Phytologist 72. 191–206.Google Scholar
Singh, G., Joshi, R.D., Chopra, S.K., Singh, A.B.. 1974. Late Quaternary history of vegetation and climate of the Rajasthan Desert, India. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 267. 467–501.Google Scholar
Singh, G., Joshi, R.D., Singh, A.B.. 1972. Stratigraphic and radiocarbon evidence for the age and development of three salt lake deposits in Rajasthan, India. Quaternary Research 2. 496–505.Google Scholar
Street, F.A.. 1979. Late Quarternary precipitation estimates for the Ziway-Shala Basin, southern Ethiopia. Palaeoecology of Africa 11. 135–143.Google Scholar
Street, F.A., Grove, A.T.. 1976. Environmental and climatic implications of late Quaternary lake-level fluctuations in Africa. Nature (London) 261. 385–390.Google Scholar
Street, F.A., Grove, A.T.. 1979. Global maps of lake-level fluctuations since 30,000 yr B.P.. Quaternary Research 10. 83–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Survey of India, . 1931–1934. India and Adjacent Countries (1:126, 720), Topographic Maps Calcutta, India.Google Scholar
U.S. Geological Survey, . 1977. Landsat-2 (MSS). Scene identification numbers 8272404380500 (Jan. 15, 1977) and 828310427350 (May, 1977), false color composites (74.2 cm), 1:250,000. Landsat Standard Products. Department of the Interior. EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, S. Dak.Google Scholar
U.S. Army Map Service, . 1963. India and Pakistan 1:250,000, Series U502. Topographic Maps. Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Verstappen, H.T.. 1970. Aeolian geomorphology of the Thar Desert and paleoclimates. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie 10. 104–120. Supplementband.Google Scholar
Vishnu-Mittre, . 1974. Plant remains and climate from the late Harappan and other Chalolithic cultures of India—A Study in inter-relationships. Geophytology 4. 46–53.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, Bryson, R.A.. 1972. Late- and postglacial climatic change in the northern Midwest, USA: Quantitative estimates derived from fossil pollen spectra by multivariate statistical analysis. Quaternary Research 2. 70–115.Google Scholar
Webb, T. III, Clark, D.R.. 1977. Calibrating micropaleontological data in climatic terms: A critical review. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288. 93–118.Google Scholar
Weise, A.F., VanDiver, C.W.. 1970. Soil moisture effects on competitive ability of weeds. Weed Science 18. 518–519.Google Scholar
World Weather Records * Vol. 4. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, ESSA 1951–1960 Washington, D.C. “Asia”.Google Scholar