Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Chemical Geology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemgeo Link between climate and catchment erosion in the Himalaya during the late Quaternary Mohd Amir a , Debajyoti Paul a, ⁎ , Ajit Singh a , Sanjeev Gupta b , François Chabaux c , Mathieu Granet c , S. Balakrishnan d a Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur 208016, India b Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK c Laboratory of Hydrology and Geochemistry of Strasbourg (LHyGeS), Université de Strasbourg/EOST, CNRS, 1 rue Blessig, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France d Department of Earth Sciences, Pondicherry University, Puducherry 605014, India ARTICLEINFO Editor: Catherine Chauvel Keywords: Paleo-Sutlej River Ghaggar-Hakra River Nd-Sr-C isotope ratios Sediment provenance Paleoclimate Paleovegetation ABSTRACT Few studies using geochemistry of sediments from plains and delta of the Himalayan river system have reported contrasting results on the shift in erosion of diferent lithotectonic units, across the strike of Himalayan orogen, in response to changes in the intensity of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and glacial cover during the late Quaternary. Here we present records of the 143 Nd/ 144 Nd(ε Nd ) and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios and δ 13 C of sediment organic matter (δ 13 C SOM ) in bulk sediment samples from two ~45 m long alluvial cores, collected from a paleo-Sutlej channel (in Sirhind, Punjab) at an upstream connection of a large river (Ghaggar-Hakra) with present-day Sutlej River in NW India. The isotopic variations are compared with the available proxy records that document changes in the ISM and Himalayan glacial extent. Signifcant covariation in down-core profles of ε Nd (−14.1 to −22.2) and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr (0.72251–0.79456) reveals changing contributions of sediment derived from the Higher and Lesser Himalaya end-member sources in the catchment. Higher ε Nd (and lower 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) during early marine isotope stage (MIS) 1 and late MIS3 refects increased contribution from the Higher Himalaya as a result of receding glacial cover as well as intense ISM that penetrates into the interior of the Higher Himalaya during warm periods. The δ 13 C SOM varies from −28.5‰ to −21.3‰ and shows a 5–7‰ increase from colder MIS2 to warmer early MIS1, implying an increase in C 4 plant abundance during the same period in response to intensifcation of the ISM in the post last glacial maximum period. These variations in sediment provenance and vegetation pattern thus highlight the pronounced infuence of climate on distribution of erosion and vegetation types in the NW Himalaya. 1. Introduction The exhumation and erosion of the Himalaya have produced large volumes of sediments that have been transported by the Himalayan- sourced large rivers and deposited in the foreland basins, forming the present-day Indo-Gangetic alluvial Plain (Galy and France-Lanord, 2001; Singh et al., 2008). Both the sediment production and supply are largely controlled by tectonic and climatic factors afecting the region (Hallet et al., 1996; Burbank et al., 2003; Thiede et al., 2004; Bookhagen et al., 2005; Clift et al., 2008). Unlike the regional tectonics that operates on a longer time scale, the regional climate- intensity of Indian summer monsoon (ISM)- strongly afects erosion of the Hima- laya on a much shorter millennial time scale (Ahmad et al., 2005). Several studies have proposed a link between ISM intensity (and glacial cover) and the distribution of erosion over the Himalaya (e.g., Bookhagen et al., 2005; Rahaman et al., 2009; Singh et al., 2016a). But, variability in the distribution of erosion along the strike of the Hima- laya and its causative factors have not been well understood. Using Nd- Sr isotope compositional variability in a sediment core from the Ganga- Yamuna interfuve, Rahaman et al. (2009) suggested enhanced erosion of the Higher Himalaya (HH) in the Ganga catchment due to in- tensifcation of the ISM during the post last glacial maximum (LGM) period during which the glacial cover also receded towards higher elevations. On the other hand, geochemical data of Indus Delta sedi- ments suggest increased erosion of the Lesser Himalaya (LH) in the Indus catchment due to ISM intensifcation during the post-LGM period (Clift et al., 2008). Therefore, such contradictory observations on the catchment erosion in response to climate change along the strike of the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2018.10.006 Received 18 May 2018; Received in revised form 1 October 2018; Accepted 5 October 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: dpaul@iitk.ac.in (D. Paul). Chemical Geology 501 (2018) 68–76 Available online 17 October 2018 0009-2541/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T