The Himalayan region is very important in the context of global climate change because of its influence on the Asian
summer monsoon circulation, which affects the climates of many countries of the world. The instrumental climate
records for Himalayas go back to only about 100-120 years. It is therefore useful to have long-term high resolution
palaeoclimatic records for this region to better understand its climate and its large-scale spatial linkages. Tree
rings offer an excellent proxy to reconstruct the high resolution past climate and many tree ring based climatic
reconstructions have already been done in many regions of the world. Conifers of Himalaya offer an excellent
dendroclimatic tools to reconstruct the past climate of the region for many hundreds of years. Several other studies
have already demonstrated the dendroclimatic potential of Himalayan conifers because of their distinct annual growth
rings, great age and good intra and inter-species correlations. The tree ring formation occurs by the activity of
vascular cambium. The activity of the cambium and the hence the formation of tree rings is controlled by several
environmental factors.
My study aims to reconstruct the past climate of Kashmir Himalayan region with the help of tree rings. I am selecting
Abies pindrow (Himalayan fir) for this study because of its huge dendroclimatic potential. I will also study its
growth response to different climatic factors like temperature, precipitation and humidity at different elevations. I
will study the cambial phenology of this species at different elevations to have a better understanding of the effects
of present climate on cambial activity at different elevations and its variability with age. This study will help to
predict the performance of Abies pindrow at different elevations in future, which in turn will help in better forest
management policies in the context of global climate change.