Quaternary Palaeobotany/Palynology in the Himalaya an overview

Abstract

The overview appraises critically the work on Quaternary palaeobotany/palynology carried out in the Himalayas during the last hundred years. The fluctuations in cool and temperate vegetation and climate during the early Quaternary (Lower Karewas), aspects of vegetational development during the last glacial and during the present inter-glacial period impart a glimpse of the changing patterns of vegetation through the Quaternary period. Further, it urges the construction of more pollen diagrams, intensification of research on the comparative database together with increased indigenous ecological insight and the sophistication in methodology to bring out invaluable information of biogeographical, geological and archaeological interests. The history of lake basins and fluctuations in hydrochemistry should be built up through the studies of diatoms in conjunction with pollen and spores.

The studies of the evolution of Quaternary floristics should not overlook the historical perspective, i.e, its evolution from the Miocene/Pliocene flora. The recognition of the transitional stage in the evolution of flora is highly imperative to demarcate the Neogene/Quaternary boundary on botanical grounds. A few names for various stages (vegetational/climatic phases) during the Quaternary have been proposed after the type sites in keeping with the Code of Stratigraphical Nomenclature for their use in bio-and chronostratigraphy. Besides, it emphasises the importance of indigenous ecological insight in solving the ecological problems and biogeographical riddles in the diversity of floristics in the Himalayas and determines the rate and extent to which the forests in the Himalayas have been adversely affected by the progressive increase in land use and by the progressive and selective exploitation of the forest constituents.