Dr. Prasanta Sanyal
Professor
psanyal@iiserkol.ac.in
Academics
Ph.D
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, 2004.
M.Sc
Applied Geology, Jadavpur University, 1998.
B.Sc
Honours in Geological Sciences, Jadavpur University, 1996.
Research Field
Paleoclimatology | Paleomonsoon | Paleoecology | River Response to Climate
Research Interest
- Evolution of Indian monsoon and its effect on ecosystem and landforms.
- Past atmospheric CO2 variations.
- Carbon isotope thermometry.
Positions
Professor | Feb 2016- Present
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research - Kolkata
Associate Professor | Dec 2010 - Feb 2016
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research - Kolkata
Research Scientist | May-July 2009
Indiana University, USA
Assistant Professor | Jan 2006 - Dec 2010
IIT-Kharagpur
Lecturer | Dec 2005 - Jan 2006
Banares Hindu University, Varanasi
Awards & Honors
1. National Scholarship (Govt. of India) 1991-1996.
2. Research Scholarships at Physical Research Laboratory (1999-2004), Ahmedabad, India.
3. Qualified the Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR-1999) NET
4. Best paper presentation award in 11th Indian Society of Mass Spectrometry workshop which was held in Shimla during October 7th to 12th , 2004.
5. Young Earth Scientist award by Department of Science and Technology, 2004.
6. Selected as a participant in 2nd Indo-American Frontiers of Science Symposium held during 17-20 Jan 2007 at the Beckham Centre in Irvine, California , USA
7. BOYSCAST fellowship- Department of Science and Technology, 2009.
8. National Geoscience Award for significant work in the field of basic Geosciences- Ministry of Mines, 2014.
Publications
2002
- 1. P.P. Chakraborty, A.Sarkar, S.K.Bhattacharya, P.Sanyal, 2002: Isotopic and Sedimentological clues to productivity change in Late Riphean Sea: A case study from two intracratonic basins of India. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet Sci.) v. 111 No.4, 379-390.
2004
- 2. Prasanta Sanyal, S.K.Bhattacharya, Rohtash Kumar, Sumit K. Ghosh, S.J. Sangode, 2004: Mio-Pliocene monsoonal record from Indian Himalayan Foreland basin (Siwalik) and its relation to vegetational change. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. v.205, 23-41
2005
- 3. Prasanta Sanyal, S.K.Bhattacharya, Rohtash Kumar, Sumit K. Ghosh, S.J. Sangode, 2005: Paleovegetational reconstruction in Late Miocene: a case study based on early diagenetic carbonate cement from Indian Siwalik. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology v. 228,245-259.
- 4. Prasanta Sanyal, S.K.Bhattacharya, Mahesh Prasad, 2005: Chemical diagenesis of Siwalik sandstone: Isotopic and mineralogical proxies from Surai Khola section, Nepal. Sedimentary Geology v.180, 57-74.
- 5. Prasanta Sanyal, S.K. Bhattacharya, S. Bajpai and R. Sharma, 2005: Palaeoenvironmental conditions during deposition of Deccan intertrappeans: Evidence from stable isotope analysis of fossil ostracods. Gondwana Geological Magazine, Spl. v. 8,pp. 147-150.
2006
- 6. R. Sinha, S.K. Tandon, P. Sanyal, M.R. Gibling, D. Stuben, Z. Berner, and P. Ghazanfari, 2006: Calcretes from a Late Quaternary interfluve in the Ganga Plains, India: carbonate types and isotopic systems in a monsoonal setting. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 242, 214-239.
- 7. Santanu Banerjee, S. Jeevankumar, P. Sanyal, S.K.Bhattacharya, 2006: Stable isotope ratios and nodular limestone of the Proterozoic Rohtas limestone : Vindyan Basin, India. Carbonates and Evaporites.v.21, no. 2,133-143.
2007
- 8. Prasanta Sanyal, 2007: Monsoonal rainfall variations for last 11 Myr and its impact on vegetation: study based on Indian Siwalik sediments. Himalayan Geology. 28, 23-36.
2008
- 9. M.K. Bera, A.Sarkar, P.P. Chakraborty, R.S. Loyal, P.Sanyal, 2008: Marine to continental transition in Himalayan foreland. Geological Society of American Bulletin, 120, 1212-1232.
- 10. Subhajit Sinha, Sumit K. Ghosh, Rohtash Kumar, R. Islam, P. Sanyal, S. Sangode, 2008: Role of tectonic-climatic factors in the Neogene Himalayan foreland sediments: petrology and geochemical approach, Kangra sub-basin. J. Geological Society of India. 71, 787-807.
2009
- 11. A. Sarkar, P. P. Chakraborty, B. Misra, M. K. Bera, P. Sanyal, S. Paul, 2009: Mesoproterozoic sulphidic ocean, delayed oxygenation and evolution of early life: sulphur isotope clues from Indian Proterozoic basins. Geological Magazine, 147(2)
- 12. Prasanta Sanyal, B.C. Acharya, S.K. Bhattacharya, A. Sarkar, S. Agrawal, M.K. Bera, 2009: Origin of graphite, and temperature of metamorphism in Precambrian Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt, Orissa, India: A carbon isotope approach. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 36, 252–260.
2010
- 13. Ritesh Purohit, Prasanta Sanyal, A.B. Roy, S.K. Bhattacharya, 2010: 13C enrichment in the Palaeoproterozoic carbonate rocks of the Aravalli Supergroup, northwest India: Influence of depositional environment. Gondwana Research. 18, 538-546.
- 14. Prasanta Sanyal and R. Sinha, 2010: Evolution of the Indian summer monsoon: Synthesis of continental records. Special Publications Geological Society of London in Clift, P. D., Tada, R. & Zheng, H. (Edt) Monsoon Evolution and Tectonics-Climate Linkage in Asia., 342, 153–183.
- 15. M.K.Bera, A. Sarkar, P.P. Chakraborty, R.S. Loyal, and P. Sanyal, 2010: Marine to continental transition in Himalayan foreland. Geological Society of American Bulletin 122, 956-959.
- 16. Prasanta Sanyal, A. Sarkar, S.K. Bhattacharya, Rohtash Kumar, S.K.Ghosh S.Agrawal, 2010: Intensification of monsoon, microclimate and asynchronous C4 appearance: isotopic evidence from the Indian Siwalik sediments. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 296, 165-173.
- 17. M K Bera, Anindya Sarkar, S K Tandon, A Samanta, P Sanyal, 2010: Does burial diagenesis reset pristine isotopic compositions in paleosol carbonates? Earth and Planetary Science Letters 300, 85-100.
2012
- 18. Shailesh Agrawal, Prasanta Sanyal, A. Sarkar, M. Jaiswal, K. Dutta, 2012: Variability of Indian monsoonal rainfall over the past 100 ka and its implication for C3–C4 vegetational change. Quaternary Research, 77-159-170.
2013
- 19. Agrawal, S., Sanyal, P., Bera, M.K., Dash, J.K., Balakrishnan S, 2013: Paleoclimatic, paleovegetational and provenance change in the Ganga Plainduring the late Quaternary. Journal of Earth System Science, 122, 1141-1152.
- 20. Shailesh Agrawal, Prasanta Sanyal, Srinivasanan Balakrishnan, Jitendra Dash, 2013: Exploring the temporal change in provenance encoded in the late Quaternarydeposits of the Ganga Plain. Sedimentary Geology, 293,1-8.
2014
- 21. Shailesh Agrawal, Valier Galy, Prasanta Sanyal, Timothy Eglinton, 2014: C4 plant expansion in the Ganga Plain during the last glacial cycle: Insights fromisotopic composition of vascular plant biomarkers. Organic Geochemistry, 67, 58-71.
- 22. Shailesh Agrawal, Prasanta Sanyal, Srinivasanan Balakrishnan and Jitendra K. Dash, 2014: Climate induced temporal change in Sr-Nd isotope ratios in the valley-fill deposits of the Ganga River. Geochemical Journal, Vol. 48 (No. 5), pp. 451-462
2015
- 23. V. Maibam, P Sanyal, S.K. Bhattacharya, 2015: Geochronological Study ofMetasediments and Carbon Isotopes in Associated Graphites from the Sargur Area,Dharwar Craton: Constraints on the Age and Nature of the Protoliths. Journal of Geological Society of India, Volume 85, Issue 5
- 24. Sayak Basu, Shailesh Agrawal, Prasanta Sanyal, Poritosh Mahato, Satyam Kumar, Anindya Sarkar, 2015: Carbon isotopic ratios of modern C3–C4 plants from the Gangetic Plain, India and its implications to paleovegetational reconstruction. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 440, 22-32.
2017
- 25. Sayak Basu, Anoop Ambili, Prasanta Sanyal, Pramod Singh, 2017: Lipid distribution in the lake Ennamangalam, south India: Indicators of organic matter sources and paleoclimatic history. Quaternary International, Volume 443, Part B, 10 July 2017, Pages 238-247
- 26. Sambit Ghosh, Prasanta Sanyal and Rohtash Kumar, 2017: Evolution of C4 plants and controlling factors: Insight from n-alkane isotopic values of NW Indian Siwalik paleosols . Organic Geochemistry, 110,110–121.
- 27. Pratul Kumar Saraswati, Asmita Singh, Karyne Rogers, Prasanta Sanyal, Kanchan Pande and Kenji Iwao, 2017: δ18O of Larger Benthic Foraminifera: Temperature Calibration for Shallow Marine Tropical-Subtropical Carbonates., Micropaleontology and its Applications. Scientific Publishers (India), 59-70 pp.
- 28. Anusree A.S. Pillai, Ambili Anoop, Mahesh Sankaran, Prasanta Sanyal, Deepak K. Jha, Jayashree Ratnam, 2017: Mid-late Holocene vegetation response to climatic drivers and biotic disturbances in the Banni grasslands of western India. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology .
2018
- 29. Sayak Basu, Prasanta Sanyal, Kshirod Sahoo, Naveen Chauhan, Anindya Sarkar, Navin Juyal, 2018: Variation in monsoonal rainfall sources (Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal) during the late Quaternary: Implications for regional vegetation and fluvial systems., Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Volume 491, 1 February 2018, Pages 77-91
2019
- 30. Sayak Basu, Prasanta Sanyal, Anusree A.S Pillai,Anoop Ambili, 2019: Response of grassland ecosystem to monsoonal precipitation variability during the Mid-Late Holocene: Inferences based on molecular isotopic record from Banni grassland, western India, Plos One, 14(4): e0212743.
- 31. Sayak Basu, Sambit Ghosh, and Prasanta Sanyal, 2019: Spatial heterogeneity in the relationship between precipitation and carbon isotopic discrimination of C3 plants: Inferences from a global compilation, Global and Planetary Change, 176, 123-131.
- 32. Anurag Kumar, Prasanta Sanyal, and Shailesh Agrawal, 2019: Spatial distribution of δ18O values of water in the Ganga River Basin: Insight into the hydrological processes, Journal of Hydrology, 571, 225-234
- 33. Vijayananda Sarangi, Anurag Kumar, Prasanta Sanyal, 2019: Effect of pedogenesis on the stable isotopic composition of calcretes and n-alkanes: Implications for paleoenvironmental reconstruction, Sedimentology, 66 (5), 1560-1579
2020
- 34. Sayak Basu, Sarthak Mohanty, Prasanta Sanyal, 2020: Possible role of warming on Indian summer monsoon precipitation over north-central Indian subcontinent, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 65, 660-670
- 35. Deepak Kumar Jha, Prasanta Sanyal, Anne Philippe, 2020: Multi-proxy evidence of Late Quaternary climate and vegetational history of north-central India: implication for the Paleolithic to Neolithic phases, Quaternary Science Reviews, 229, 106-121.
- 36. Biswajit Roy, Sambit Ghosh, Prasanta Sanyal, 2020: Morpho-tectonic control on the distribution of C3-C4 plants in the central Himalayan Siwaliks during Late Plio-Pleistocene, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 535, 116119
- 37. Sambit Ghosh, Prasanta Sanyal, Ravi Bhushan, S.P. Sati, Anne Philippe, Navin Juyal, 2020: Early Holocene Indian summer monsoon and its impact on vegetation in the Central Himalaya: insight from δD and δ13C values of leaf wax lipid, The Holocene, 30, 7:1063-1074
- 38. Biswajit Roy, S Patra, Prasanta Sanyal, 2020: The carbon isotopic composition of occluded carbon in phytoliths: A comparative study of phytolith extraction methods, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 281, 104280 .
- 39. Biswajit Roy, Sambit Ghosh, Prasanta Sanyal, 2020: Impact of monsoon, vegetation, and landscape on pedogenesis: A case study using organic and inorganic tracers from the Himalayan foreland sediments,Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 556, 109854.
- 40. Vijayananda Sarangi, Shailesh Agrawal, Prasanta Sanyal, 2020: The disparity in the abundance of C4 plants estimated using the carbon isotopic composition of paleosol components ,Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 562, 110068.
- 41. Deepak Kumar Jha , Rahul Samarat, Prasanta Sanyal, 2020: The first evidence of controlled use of fire by prehistoric humans during the Middle Paleolithic phase from the Indian subcontinent,Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 562, 110151.
2021
- 42. Biswajit Roy, Sohom Roy,Kanva Goyal, Sambit Ghosh, Prasanta Sanyal, 2021: Biomarker and carbon isotopic evidence of marine incursions in the Himalayan Foreland Basin during its overfilled stage Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology 36, e2020PA004083.
- 43. Matiatos I., Wassenaar L.I., .......Sanyal P., Tamooh F., Trinh A.D., Walters W., and Welti N., 2021: Global Patterns of Nitrate Isotope Composition in Rivers and Adjacent Aquifers Reveal Reactive Nitrogen Cascading, Communication Earth & Environment 2, 52 (2021).
- 44. Sambit Ghosh, Melinda Kumar Bera, Biswajit Roy, Prasanta Sanyal, 2021: Revisiting the diachronous transition of C3 to C4 plants in the Himalayan foreland and other parts of the globe: A sedimentological perspective ,Sedimentology.
- 45. Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Ajay Ajay, Anurag Kumar, Meloth Thamban, Prasanta Sanyal, 2021: Isoscape of surface runoff in high mountain catchments: An alternate model for meteoric water characterization and its implications Jouranal of Geophysical Reaearch Atmosphere, e2020JD033950, Volume 126, Issue 15.
- 46. Sohom Roy, Prasanta Sanyal, Parthasarathi Ghosh, S.K. Bhattacharya, A. Ajay., 2021: Atmospheric CO2 estimates based on Gondwanan (Indian) pedogenic carbonates reveal positive linkage with Mesozoic temperature variations Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatalogy, Palaeoecology,582, 110638.
- 47. Sohom Roy, Sambit Ghosh, Prasanta Sanyal, 2021: Carbon reservoir perturbations induced by Deccan volcanism: Stable isotope and biomolecular perspectives from shallow marine environment in Eastern India Geobiology.
- 48. Santrupta Samantaray, Prasanta Sanyal, 2021: Sources and fate of organic matter in a hypersaline lagoon: A study based on stable isotopes from the Pulicat lagoon, India Science of the Total Environment,Vol 807, Part 2, 150617.
2022
- 49. Vijayananda Sarangi, Sohom Roy, Prasanta Sanyal, 2022: Effect of burning on the distribution pattern and isotopic composition of plant biomolecules: Implications for paleoecological studies Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta,Vol 318, Pages 305-327.
- 50. Biswajit Roy, Prasanta Sanyal, 2022: Isotopic and molecular distribution of leaf-wax in plant-soil system of the Gangetic floodplain and its implication for paleorecords Quaternary International,Vol 607, Pages 89-99.
- 51. Shilpi Samiksha, Ramya Sunder Raman, Jai Prakash, Annada Padhi, Gazala Habib, Prasanta Sanyal, Ankur Bhardwaj, 2022: Characteristics of PM2. 5 emitted from the combustion of vehicular fuel and solid biomass: Thermally fractionated carbon, δ13C values, and filter-based light absorption Atmospheric Pollution Research,Volume 13, Issue 6, 101443.
- 52. Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Prasanta Sanyal, 2022: Linking Land Use Land Cover change to global groundwater storage,Science of The Total Environment, Volume 853, 20 December 2022, 158618
- 53. Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Ajay Ajay, Puneet Prakash, Prasanta Sanyal, 2022: Understanding the disparity in n-alkane production among angiosperms and gymnosperms from the higher Himalayas: Inferences drawn from a Machine Learning approach, Organic Geochemistry Volume 171, September 2022, 104463
- 54. Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Asiya B.S., Ajay Ajay, Prasanta Sanyal, 2022: Hydrometeorological progression of the Himalayan cryosphere: The Karakoram predicament, Journal of Hydrology, Volume 613, Part A, October 2022, 128348
- 55. Anurag Kumar, Ajay Ajay, Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Punyasloke Bhadury, Prasanta Sanyal, 2022: Deciphering the nitrate sources and processes in the Ganga river using dual isotopes of nitrate and Bayesian mixing model,Environmental Research, Volume 216, Part 4, 1 January 2023, 114744
- 56. Koushik Sahaa, Prasanta Sanyal, Swarnadip Saha, 2022: Source assessment of tropical-marshland sediment for evaluating seawater intrusion in Chandipur, India: An integrated granulometric and stable isotope approach,Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Volume 278, 5 November 2022, 108096
2023
- 57. S Samantaray, P Sanyal, 2023: Effect of salinity on the preservation of plant-derived n-alkyl compounds in the terrestrial-aquatic interface , Organic Geochemistry, 104653
- 58. Arun Kaushik, Anil K Gupta, Steven C Clemens, Pankaj Kumar, Prasanta Sanyal, Priyantan Gupta, Manoj Kumar Jaiswal, Abhayanand S Maurya, Sreya Sengupta, Rajveer Sharma, Rahul Pawar, 2023: Paleoclimatic reconstruction of northwest Himalaya since CE 475 using lake sediments from Tadag Taal, Kumaun, India ,Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 619, 111544
- 59. Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, Lourembam R Singh, Vaibhav Miglani, Deepak Kumar Jha, Prasanta Sanyal, Sampat K Tandon, Guntupalli VR Prasad, 2023: New Late Cretaceous titanosaur sauropod dinosaur egg clutches from lower Narmada valley, India: Palaeobiology and taphonomy, Plos One, 18 (1), e0278242
- 60. Pradeep Srivastava, Prasanta Sanyal, Sharmila Bhattacharya, Praveen K. Mishra, Suryendu Dutta, Rajarshi Chakravarti, Niraj Rai, Naveen Navani, Anoop Ambili, K. P. Karanth, Jahanavi Joshi, Sushmita Singh and Senthil Kumar Sadasivam, 2023: A need to integrate metagenomics and metabolomics in geosciences and develop the deep-time digital earth-biome database of India, Current Science Volume 124, Issue 1, p. 26
- 61. Harsha Dhiman, Vishal Verma, Lourembam R. Singh, Vaibhav Miglani, Deepak Kumar Jha, Prasanta Sanyal, S ampat K. Tandon, Guntupalli V. R. Prasad, 2023: New Late Cretaceous titanosaur sauropod dinosaur egg clutches from lower Narmada valley, India: Palaeobiology and taphonomy, Plos One, 18 (1), e0278242
- 62. Arun Kaushik, Anil K Gupta, Steven C Clemens, Pankaj Kumar, Prasanta Sanyal, Priyantan Gupta, Manoj Kumar Jaiswal, Abhayanand S Maurya, Sreya Sengupta, Rajveer Sharma, Rahul Pawar, 2023: Paleoclimatic reconstruction of northwest Himalaya since CE 475 using lake sediments from Tadag Taal, Kumaun, India ,Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 619, 111544
- 63. S Samantaray, P Sanyal, 2023: Effect of salinity on the preservation of plant-derived n-alkyl compounds in the terrestrial-aquatic interface , Organic Geochemistry, 104653
- 64. Amrita Saishree, Shreyas Managave, Vijayananda Sarangi, Prasanta Sanyal, 2023: Experimental evidence suggests dominance of species effect on the variability in hydrogen isotope fractionation between leaf wax compounds and source water, Organic Geochemistry, 104656
- 65. Gunjan Agrawal, Prasanta Sanyal, 2023: Discerning animal-sourced food in diet using isotope analysis of human scalp hair and fingernails, European Journal of Nutrition, Volume 63, pages 409–423, (2024)
- 66. Raj S.I.S. Podder, Anil K. Gupta, Prasanta Sanyal, Steven Clemens, 2023: Changes in surface hydrography of the western equatorial Indian Ocean during the Pleistocene: Implications for East African climate variability, Global and Planetary Change, Volume 231, December 2023, 104322
2024
- 67. Deepak Kumar Jha, Pranav Hirave, Sambit Ghosh, Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Prasanta Sanyal, 2024: Does leaf wax isotopic characterisation of gymnosperms and angiosperms capture environmental gradients in Himalayas?, Organic Geochemistry, Volume 187, January 2024, 104720
- 68. Raj S.I.S. Podder, Anil K. Gupta, Steven Clemens, Prasanta Sanyal, M.K. Panigrahi, 2024: Changes in the Indian Ocean surface hydrography driven by the seaway closure and monsoonal circulation since the late Oligocene, Global and Planetary Change, Volume 232, January 2024, 104335
- 69. Anurag Kumar, Sayak Basu, Ajay Ajay, Deepak Kumar Jha, Prasanta Sanyal, 2024: Quantitative delineation of water sources in the river Ganga using stable water isotopes, River Research and Applications, Volume 40, Issue 2, February 2024, Pages 177-190
- 70. Prasanta Sanyal, Sourav Priyam Adhya, Ritwick Mandal, Biswajit Roy, Bibhasvata Dasgupta, Santrupta Samantaray, Rahul Sen, Vijayananda Sarangi, Anurag Kumar, Deepak K Jha, Ajay Ajay, 2024: The Geologic History of Plants and Climate in India, Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 52, February 2024
- 71. Jeet Majumder, Anil K Gupta, Prasanta Sanyal, Pankaj Kumar, Rudra Narayan Mohanty, Rajveer Sharma, Mohan Kuppusamy, Mruganka K Panigrahi, 2024: Surface oceanographic changes from ∼ 25,000 to 3500 cal yr BP in the eastern Arabian Sea,
Global and Planetary Change, Volume 234, March 2024, 104397