Is it possible to demarcate floristically Pleistocene/Holocene transition in India?

Abstract

The data on the floristic change during transitional phase of Pleistocene and Holocene are scanty. Although shifting of glacial to nonglacial climate is considered elsewhere for the demarcation of Pleistocene/Holocene, it could not be observed in India except at the glaciated sites in the higher Himalayas. A major change can be traced in the nonglacial region due to the strengthening of monsoon associated with higher insolation largely around this transition. Replacement of steppe by savannah in Rajasthan, increase in mangrove taxa in Arabian Sea sediments, and a decline of grassland with Shola constituents in Nilgiris, all happened under climatic change from arid to warm moist around 11,000-9,000 B.P. In the Himalayan region, at the higher elevations replacement of alpine taxa by subalpine birch has been noted in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh during this transition, which is similar to Europe and North America where arctic elements are replaced by subarctic elements. However, in Ladakh, the trans-Himalayan region, this transition is characterised by the dominance of steppe taxa represented by Chenopodiaceae and Artemisia indicating aridity.