PM

Pavani Misra

University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, University of Bern, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Pondicherry University, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

ORCID iD 0000-0003-1101-0610
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About

I have a background in Applied Geology and my research focuses on Palaeolimnology, Paleoclimatology, and Sedimentology. I have worked extensively on lake sediments to reconstruct past environmental conditions and to study changes in ecosystems over time.

My PhD project was on decoding the Holocene paleoclimatic and paleovegetational changes in the Central Ganga Plains in North India using lake sediments from an oxbow lake following a multiproxy and multi-site approach. During this project, I received training to extract and analyse the sediments for multiple sedimentological (grain size, clay mineralogy), geochemical (total organic carbon, carbonate isotope analysis (δ18O) of gastropod shells, isotopic analysis of organic matter (δ13Corg) and n-alkane lipid biomarkers (δD)), and palynological (identification and counting of pollen, phytolith, diatoms, and freshwater sponges) proxies.

Currently, I am working on an SNSF Sinergia project on ‘Digging deep into Lake Victoria's past’ which aims to understand how physical and chemical environments interact (reciprocally or otherwise) with biodiversity change over the course of ecosystem development. A multiproxy dataset along with a robust chronological framework has been produced from four sediment cores extracted along a depth transect that allow us to trace the evolution of littoral, pelagic and profundal zones of Lake Victoria since its recent-most filling ~16 cal ka BP. I aim to apply a meta-analytic approach to synthesize this multiproxy dataset to study the inter- and intra-proxy correlations and identify (in)coherences through space and time.

Employment

  • University of Modena and Reggio Emilia Postdoctoral Fellow
    2024 - 2025
  • University of Bern Postdoctoral Fellow
    2022 - 2024
  • Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Guest Employee (Postdoc)
    2022 - 2024
  • Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Project Assistant
    2022 - 2022
  • Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur PhD
    2014 - 2021

Education

  • Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur PhD
    2014 - 2021
  • Pondicherry University Master of Science (Five year Integrated course)
    2009 - 2014

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (9)